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THE LIFE 



OF 



RICHARD COBDEN 




^surmiX/! JU^y- .•/%£ 



THE LIFE 



OF 



RICHARD COBDEN 



BY 



JOHN^MORLEY 

BARRISTER-AT-LAW ; M.A.OXFORD; HON. LL.D. GLASGOW 



BOSTON 
ROBERTS BROTHERS 

1890 




31 ft 5" r 



Author's Edition. 






University Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 

TRANSFER 
&, O, PUBLIC LIBBAJERT 
BBPT. lO, 1&40 



WITHDRAWN 



TO 



THE RIGHT HONORABLE 

JOHN BRIGHT, 

S^ijs J&emou 

OF HIS CLOSE COMRADE IN THE CAUSE OF WISE, JUST, 
AND SEDATE GOVERNMENT 

IS INSCRIBED 

WITH THE WRITER'S SINCERE RESPECT. 




PREFACE. 



OWING to various circumstances, with which I have no right 
to trouble the reader, the publication of this work has been 
delayed considerably beyond the date at which I hoped to bring 
it to an end. As things have turned out, the delay has done no 
harm. My memoir of Mr. Cobden appears at a moment when 
there is a certain disposition in men's minds to subject his work 
and his principles to a more hostile criticism than they have 
hitherto encountered. So far perhaps it is permitted to me to 
hope that the book will prove opportune. It is possible, how- 
ever, that it may disappoint those who expect to find in it a com- 
pletely furnished armory for the champions of Free Trade. I 
did not conceive it to be my task to compile a polemical hand- 
book for that controversy. For this the reader must always go to 
the parliamentary debates between 1840 and 1846, and to the 
manuals of Political Economy. 

It will perhaps be thought that I should have done better to 
say nothing of Mr. Cobden's private affairs. In the ordinary case 
of a public man, reserve on these matters is possibly a good rule. 
In the present instance, so much publicity was given to Mr. 
Cobden's affairs — some of it of a very malicious kind — that it 
seemed best, not only to the writer, but to those whose feelings he 
was bound first and exclusively to consider, to let these take their 
place along with the other facts of his life. 

The material for the biography has been supplied in great 
abundance by Mr. Cobden's many friends and correspondents. 
His family with generous confidence intrusted it to my uncon- 



viii PREFACE. 

trolled discretion, and for any lack of skill or judgment that 
may appear in the way in which the materials have been handled, 
the responsibility is not theirs but mine. Much of the corre- 
spondence had been already sifted and arranged by Mr. Henry 
Eichard, the respected Member for Merthyr, who handed over to 
me the result of his labor with a courtesy and good-will for 
which I am particularly indebted to him. Lord Cardwell was 
obliging enough to procure for me Mr. Cobden's letter to Sir 
Eobert Peel (Chap. XVII.), and, along with Lord Hardinge, to 
give me permission to print Sir Eobert Peel's reply. Mr. Bright, 
with an unwearied kindness for which I can never be too grate- 
ful, has allowed me to consult him constantly, and has abounded 
in helpful corrections and suggestions while the sheets were 
passing through the press. Nor can I forget to express the many 
obligations that I owe to my friend, Sir Louis Mallet. It was 
he who first induced me to undertake a piece of work which 
he had much at heart, and he has followed it with an attention, 
an interest, and a readiness in counsel and information, of 
which I cannot but fear that the final product gives a very 
inadequate idea. 

J. M. 

September 29th, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Early Life. 



page 

Coeden's birthplace 1 

His family and early education ... 2 

Business in London 3 

Character as a young man 4 



PAGE 

Commercial journeys 5 

Visit to Ireland 8 

Family troubles 9 

Begins business on his own account . 10 



CHAPTER II. 
Commercial and Mental Progress. 



Cobden's early enterprise 12 

Letters to his brother 14 

AtSabden 15 



Self-education 17 

Visits France and Switzerland ... 19 
Death of his father 20 



CHAPTER III. 
Travels in West and East. 



Voyage to the United States .... 20 

Vindication of his own country ... 22 

Niagara 23 

Estimate of American character ... 26 

Publication of pamphlets 28 

Starts for the East . 29 

Gibraltar 30 

Malta . 32 

Alexandria ..33 

From Alfeh to Cairo 36 

The Pyramids 37 



Cairo 38 

Visit to Mehemet' AH 40 

Egyptian manufactories 45 

Massacre of Scio 46 

Constantinople 47 

Voyage to Smyrna 49 

Conversations at Smyrna 51 

Turkish characteristics 52 

Athens and the Greeks 55 

From Athens to Patras 56 

Malta and the navy 58 



CHAPTER IV. 
The Two Pamphlets. 



Mental activity after the Reform Act . 60 

Combe's influence on Cobden .... 63 

Application to English policy .... 64 

The new problem 66 

Prosperity and political stability . . 67 

Russia and Turkey 68 



Intervention judged by experience . . 70 

The Great Usage 71 

Importance of American competition . 73 

Extravagances of intervention ... 74 

Shelburne as a precursor 75 

Cobden's literary style 76 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 
Life in Manchester, 1837-39. 



Political excitement 76 

Letter on factory legislation .... 78 

Rejection at Stockport 79 

Business and position in Manchester . 80 

Advanced opinions in Manchester . . 82 

Struggle for a Charter 83 

The Whigs and local self-government . 84 



The Radicals and the people . . . 

The Zollverein 

The Prussian government .... 

A Sunday at Berlin 

Manchester and Germany contrasted 
Acquaintances in London .... 
Incorporation of Manchester . . . 



85 
87 
88 
89 
91 
92 
94 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Foundation of the League. 



Bastiat's comments .94 

Narrow beginning of the struggle . . 95 
London Anti Corn Law Association . 96 
The Chamber of Commerce .... 97 

The idea of the League 98 

The Corn Question in Parliament . . 100 



Resentment of the Repealers . 


. . 102 


The lecturers in the country . 


. . 103 




. . 104 


Condition of the rural poor . 


. . 105 


New settlement in business . 


. : 107 




. . 108 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Corn Laws. 



Huskisson's legislation. . . 
The Corn Bills of 1827-28 . 
Effect upon foreign countries . 



109 
111 
112 



Attitude of political parties 
The Whig Budget . . . 
Defeat of the Whigs . . 



113 
114 

115 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COBDEN ENTERS PARLIAMENT — FlRST SESSION. 



Free Traders 116 I First speech in Parliament . . . 

The new Parliament 117 I Protest against the philanthropists 



119 
124 



CHAPTER IX. 

COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 



Friendship with Mr. Bright . , 
Their different characteristics 
Cobden's oratorical qualities . . 

His personality 

Feeling toward his countrymen 



126 
129 
130 
132 



133 



His faculty of veneration 
Conditions of usefulness 
Practical energy . . . 
Logic and poetry . . 
Genial ideas .... 



134 
136 
137 
138 
139 



CHAPTER X. 
The New Corn Law. 



Political plans 140 

The autumn campaign 141 

The League press . 142 

Thackeray and Carlyle 143 

Discussion in the Cabinet 145 

The Ministerial plan 146 



Feeling in the country 148 

Cobden's speech on the plan .... 149 

Country party and manufacturers . . 150 

Disappointment of the League . . . 152 

New projects 153 

Attitude of the clergy 155 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



CHAPTER XI. 
Sir Robert Peel's New Policy. 



The Imports Committee 157 

Sir Robert Peel's position 159 

The new tariff 160 



Cobden's impressions 161 

Speech on the state of the country . . 164 
Reply to Sir Robert Peel 166 



CHAPTER XII. 

Renewed Activity of the League — Cobden and Sir Robert Peel- 
Rural Campaign. 



The League and the workmen . . . 166 

Renewed activity 167 

Cobden in Scotland 169 

Mr. Bright upon Scotland .... 170 

Speech on Lord Howick's Motion . . 172 

Scene with Sir Robert Peel .... 173 

Mr. Roebuck's attack 175 

Feeling in the country 177 



Reply to the Manchester address . . 178 

Meetings at Drury Lane 180 

Agitation in the counties 181 

Interest of the farmers 182 

Debates with landowners 186 

Questions in Parliament 188 

Occupations in the recess ..... 191 

Distrust of the Whigs 193 



CHAPTER XIII. 
The Session of 1844 — Factory Legislation — The Constituencies. 



Statistics of agitation 194 

Corn Laws in the background . . . 196 

Ecclesiastical propertv 198 

The " Condition of England " ... 199 



Factory legislation 200 

English forms of socialism .... 203 

The forty-shilling franchise .... 204 

Fox's views on this franchise . . . 206 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Bastiat — New Tactics — Activity in Parliament - 
Private Affairs. 



-Maynooth Grant 



Bastiat's appearance in England . . 206 

Bastiat and the Leaguers 208 

Seventh year of the League .... 209 

Change of tactics 211 

Bright and the Squires 212 

Important speech 213 

Elocutionary methods 214 



The argument 215 

Disraeli's position 217 

Prospects of the question 218 

The Catholic grant 219 

Letters to Mrs. Cobden 220 

Private embarrassments 222 

Letter from Mr. Bright 224 



CHAPTER XV. 
The Autumn of 1845. 



The Edinburgh letter 227 

The Ministerial crisis 228 

Renewed agitation 229 

Proffer of office to Cobden .... 230 



Sir Robert Peel and his party . . . 232 

Sir Robert Peel's conversion . . . 234 

Finances of the League 235 

Reconciliation with Sir Robert Peel . 237 



CHAPTER XVI. 
Repeal of the Corn Laws and Fall of the Government. 



State of public opinion on repeal . . 238 

Difficulties of Peel's position . . . 241 

Attitude of the Whigs 242 

Proceedings in Parliament .... 244 

Letter to George Combe 245 

Cobden's view of his own position . 246 

Plans for the future 248 



The miseries of popularity .... 249 

Letter to Mrs. Cobden and others . . 251 

Progress of the Corn Bill 254 

In London society 256 

Third reading of the Bill in the House 257 

The Bill passes the Upper House . . 259 

Peel's final tribute to Cobden ... 260 



Xll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Correspondence with Sir Robert Peel — Cessation of the League. 



Peel urged to dissolve Parliament . . 261 

Opposite views of Peel . ; . . . 266 

Letter from Lord John Russell . . . 270 

Final meeting of the League .... 271 



Its peculiar work 272 

Fresh projects 274 

Reflections on social progress . . . 275 

The National Testimonial .... 277 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
Tour over Europe. 



Omens of revolution in Paris .... 279 

Cobden's popularity among strangers . 280 

Interview with Louis Philippe . . . 281 

In Spain 282 

In Southern France 283 

In Italy 284 

At Rome 286 

Interview with the Pope 290 

The Campagna 291 

Naples and Turin 292 



The Italian lakes , . 294 

Venice and Trieste 295 

Interview with Prince Metternich . . 296 

AtBabelsberg 298 

Berlin and Potsdam 300 

Stettin 301 

The Russian frontier 302 

Moscow 303 

St. Petersburg 306 

Arrival at home 309 



CHAPTER. XIX. 
Election for the West Riding — Purchase of Dunford — Correspondence. 



General election . 311 

Purchase of his birthplace .... 312 

Picture of rural life in Sussex . . . 313 

The Spanish Marriages 315 

Letter to Mr. Bright ...... 316 

On a mischievous foreign policy . . 317 

Complaints from Bastiat 318 

The Revolution of 1848 319 



The Revolution in France 322 

Work in Parliament 323 

The Education Question 325 

Letter to W. R. Greg 326 

To Combe, on Ireland 327 

On Dissent from one's Party ... 331 

Position in Parliament 332 

The People's Budget 333 



CHAPTER XX. 
Miscellaneous Correspondence on Social and Political Movements 



New plans for political reform . . . 334 

Letter on change of programme . . 335 

A triumphal celebration 337 

To Combe, on National Expenditure . 338 

The motion for Arbitration .... 340 

The Peace Congress at Paris . . . 341 



In Versailles 

To Mr. Bright, on Ireland 
On Parliamentary Reform 
On the English Land Question 
To Mr. Bright, on Democracy 
To Mr. Livesey, on Temperance 



343 
344 
345 
346 
347 
349 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The Don Pacifico debate — The Papal Aggression— Correspondence 
with Mr. Bright on Reform — Kossuth. 



The Hungarian War of Independence 
Cobden's denunciation of war loans 
Root of Cobden's feeling about war 
The affair of Don Pacifico 
Issues of the debate . . 

Death of Peel 

Stock-exchange creditors . 
Miscellaneous notes . . 
Peace Congress at Frankfort 
The No-popery cry . . . 



354 
356 
357 
358 
360 
361 
363 
364 
366 
368 



The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill ... 369 

Deadlock of parties 371 

Motion for negotiations with France . 372 

Doubts on reform 374, 

To Mr. Bright, on the Land Question 375 

Letter on the Reform movement . . 376 

Welcome to Kossuth 377 

To Mr. Bright, in explanation . . . 379 

Mr. Bright and Kossuth 380 

English view of Russian intervention 381 



CONTENTS. 



Xlll 



CHAPTER XXII. 
The Protectionists in Office. 



Fate of the Whig Ministry .... 382 

Parliamentary tactics 385 

Revival of the League 386 

Growth of the military spirit . . . 387 

Cobden's urgency for a dissolution . 388 



The general election 

The Free Traders and the Ministry 
Humiliation of the Protectionists . 

Mr. Disraeli's Budget 

Fate of the first Derby Ministry . 



389 
391 
392 
394 
395 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Panic of 1853. 



Fear of French invasion 396 

Public rumors 397 

Pamphlet: " 1792 and 1853 " ... 399 

The war of 1793 400 

Social state of France and of England 402 



French feeling for Napoleon .... 403 

Peace Conference at Manchester . . 405 

Events of the session 406 

Misrepresentation of this movement . 407 

Visit to Oxford 409 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Crimean War. 



Origin of the war 410 

Cobden's policy and Palmerston's . . 411 

Mortification of Cobden and Bright . 414 

Their steadfastness 416 

Difficulties of a Peace party .... 417 

Cobden's speeches on the war . . . 418 



Letters to Mr. Bright 419 

Letters to Colonel Fitzmayer . - . 423 

Sympathy with Mr. Bright .... 424 

Louis Napoleon 427 

Letter to M. Chevalier 428 

Letter to Mr. Ashworth . . . . 429 



CHAPTER XXV. 
Death of his Son. 



Terrible news 431 

Violent grief of Mrs. Cobden . . . 432 



Mr. Bright' s illness 433 

Sojourn in Wales 434 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
Chinese Affairs — Cobden's Motion — The Dissolution. 



The affair of the " Arrow " .... 435 

Defeat of the Ministry 437 

The repulse in the country .... 439 

Letter from Mr. Bright 440 



Cobden's feeling 442 

Mr. Bright's election at Birmingham . 443 

Charles Sumner's visit 444 

Views of parliamentary life .... 445 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Indian Mutiny — Private Affairs — Second Journey to America. 

Demoralization of England by India . 455 

Change of Government 457 

Private anxieties 458 

Munificent friendship 459 

Illinois Central Railroad 459 

United States in 1858 460 





. . 447 


Christianizing the Hindoos . . 


. . 449 


On contact with inferior races . 


. . 450 




. . 451 


Misgivings as to the future . . 


. . 452 




. . 454 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Return from America — The new Ministry. 



Events during his absence .... 461 
Arrival at Liverpool 463 



Interview with Lord Palmerston 
Refusal of office 



464 
467 



XIV 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
The French Treaty. 



Chevalier's visit 469 

With Mr. Gladstone at Hawarden . . 470 

Return to London 472 

Arrival in Paris 473 

Interview with the Emperor .... 474 

The French Minister ...... 478 

The Ministers at home 480 



The Emperor's hesitation 481 

Second interview with the Emperor . 482 

Cobden receives official powers . . . 485 

The Emperor's deviations .... 486 

Hostile feeling in France 488 

The treaty signed 489 

Principle of these negotiations . . . 490 



CHAPTER XXX. 
Holiday and Return to Paris. 



The Italian Question 491 

Interview with Prince Metternich . . 493 

At Cannes 496 

Return to Paris 497 



The Question of Savoy . . . 
Discussion with the Emperor 
Prince Napoleon . .."... 
Cobden's private circumstances. 



498 



501 
502 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



The Tariff — The Fortification Scheme. 



Debates on the treaty 503 

Nature of the treaty 505 

Fresh labors in Paris 506 

The Commission 508 

Social intercourse ....... 509 

Count Persigny on the Empire . . . 510 

Conversation with Prince Napoleon . 511 

The proposal for fortifications . . . 513 

Lord Palmerston's distrust .... 515 

Mr. Gladstone's position 516 

Cobden'^ remonstrance 517 

Lord Palmerston's reply 519 



Lord John Russell's reply .... 520 

Effect in Paris 521 

M. Rouher on Palmerston's speech . 522 

Interview with Prince Napoleon . . 523 

Conversation with Count Persigny . 524 

Delay in signing the Convention . . 526 

The Conventions signed 527 

Cobden and Bright with the Emperor 528 

Abolition of passports 529 

Reception of the tariff in England . . 531 

Antipathy to the English Government 532 

Letter from Lord Palmerston . . . 533 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
The Policy of the Commercial Treaty. 



Free exchange 

State of the question in 1843 . . . 
Cobden's vindication of the treaty. 



535 I Peculiarity of Cobden's treaty . . . 538 

536 Double operation of the treaty . . . 539 

537 I The economic circulation 540 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1859-60 — Paris — Return to England. 



Letters to Mr. Bright 542 

Mr. Bright' s public appearances . . 544 

Condition of political life 545 

Letters to William Hargreaves . . . 546 

Napoleon III. as a writer 547 

The state of Europe 548 

The Turkish Question 549 



Sober politics of Peel and Aberdeen . 551 

British rule in India . . . . . . 552 

Great producers — The counties . . 554 

The English working class .... 555 

Life in Algiers 555 

Rights of women 556 

Last interview with the Emperor . . 556 



CONTENTS. 



XV 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
The American War — Fortification Schemes — International' Law. 



Reception in England 

The Southern Rebellion 

Proposed changes in maritime law . . 
Battles with Lord Palmerston . . . 

War and commerce 

On China 

On traders and missionaries in China 
On Lord Brougham — On secession . 

On the Trent affair 

To Mr. Sumner on the war . . . . 
Shipping interests 



558 
560 
561 
562 
565 
566 
567 
568 
570 
572 
576 



On the commercial class 576 

On Lord Palmerston 579 

On the American blockade .... 579 

Debate on Turkey 581 

On the Polish Insurrection .... 582 

The Cotton trade 583 

English neutrality 585 

Visit to the fortifications of Portsmouth 587 

To Mr. Bright on the Confederacy . . 588 

On the political torpor of the day . . 590 

On privateering 592 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
Correspondence with Mr. Delane. 



Feeling towards the Times newspaper 593 

Charge of the Times against Mr. Bright 594 

Cobden's protest 595 

Mr. Delane' s reply 596 

Personal letter to Mr. Delane . . . 597 



Continuance of the controversy 
Mr. Delane' s virtual surrender 
The merits of the controversy 
Letters to the Daily Telegraph 
Cobden's view of journalism 



599 
602 
603 
605 
606 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
The Danish War — Last Speeches in Parliament — Correspondence. 



Denmark and the British Government 606 

Humiliating position of Palmerston . 608 

Cobden's speeches during the session 609 

Character of President Lincoln . . . 610 

On Garibaldi's visit to London . . . 611 



On Free Trade in France 612 

On the triumph of non-intervention . 613 

International law 614 

On blockades 615 

On the Danish Question 615 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Speech at Rochdale — The Land Question — Correspondence — Last 
Days and Death. 



Cobden's views on the Land Question 616 

Illness after his return from Rochdale 618 

Letter to Charles Sumner 619 

On Minority Representation .... 620 

To Mr Bright 622 



Offer of a post bv the Government . 623 

To Mr. T. B. Potter 624 

To Mr. Bright 625 

On Canadian affairs 627 

Journey to London — Last illness . . 628 



Traits of private character 
Views on Culture . . . 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Conclusion. 

. . . 630 I His contribution to social reform 
. . . 632 I The new possessors of power 



634 
635 



APPENDIX. 
" Hours of labor ; " letter to W. C. Hunt . . . . 



637 



THE 

LIFE OF RICHARD COBDEN. 



CHAPTEE I. 

EAELY LIFE. 

Heyshott is a hamlet in a sequestered corner of "West Sussex, 
not many miles from the Hampshire border. It is one of the 
crests that, like wooded islands, dot the great Valley of the 
Weald. Near at hand the red housetops of Midhurst sleep 
among the trees, while Chichester lies in the fiats a dozen miles 
away, beyond the steep escarpments of the South Downs, that 
here are nearing their western edge. Heyshott has a high roll- 
ing upland of its own, part of the majestic wall that runs from 
Beachy Head almost to Portsmouth. As the traveller ascends 
the little neighboring height of West Lavington, he discerns far 
off to the left, at the end of a dim line, the dark clump of sentinel 
firs at Chanctonbury, whence one may look forth over the glisten- 
ing flood of the Channel, or hear the waters beat upon the shore. 
The country around Midhurst is sprinkled thinly with farms and 
modest homesteads. Patches of dark forest mingle with green 
spaces of common, with wide reaches of heath, with ponds flash- 
ing in the sunlight, and with the white or yellow clearing of the 
fallows. The swelling turf of the headland, looking northward 
across the Weald to the loved companion downs of Surrey, is 
broken by soft wooded hollows, where the shepherd finds a shelter 
from the noontide sun, or from the showers that are borne along 
in the driving flight of the southwest wind. 

Here, in an old farmhouse, known as Dunford, Eichard Cobden 
was born on June 3, 1804. He was the fourth of a family of 
eleven children. His ancestors were yeomen of the soil, and it is 
said, with every appearance of truth, that the name can be traced 
in the annals of the district as far back as the fourteenth century. 
The antiquarians of the county have found out that one Adam de 
Coppdene was sent to Parliament by the borough of Chichester in 
1314. There is talk of a manor of Cobden in the ninth of Ed- 



2 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1804-19 

ward TV. (1470). Tn L562 there is a record of William Cobden 
devising lands on the downs in Westdean. Thomas Cobden of 
Midhurst was a contributor o( twenty-five pounds to the fund 
raised for resisting the Spanish Armada. When hearth-money 
was levied in L670, Richard Cobden, junior, is entered as paving 
for seven out of the seventy-six hearths of the district. In the 
Sussex election poll-book for L734 a later Richard Cobden is put 
down as a voter for the parish of Midhurst, and four or five oth- 
ers are entered as freeholders in other parts of West Sussex. 
The best opinion seems to be that the settlement of the Cobdens 
at Midhurst took place some time in the seventeenth century,and 
that they were lineal descendants of Sir Adam and Sir Ralph of 
former ages. 

However all this may be, the five hundred years that inter- 
vened had nursed no great prosperity, Cobden's grandfather and 
namesake was a maltster and farmer, and tilled for several years 
the principal office of bailiff for the borough of Midhurst. When 
he died in J.809, he left a very modest property behind him. 
Dunford was sold, and William Cobden, the only son of Richard 
the elder, and the father of the Richard Cobden with whom we 
are concerned, removed to a small farm on the outskirts of Mid- 
hurst He was a man of soft and affectionate disposition, but 
wholly without the energy of affairs. He was the gentlest and 
kindest of men. Honest and upright himself, he was incapable 
of doubting the honesty and uprightness of others. He was 
cheated without suspecting it, and lie had not force of character 
enough to redeem a fortune which gradually slipped away from 
him. Poverty oozed in with gentle swiftness, and lay about 
him like a dull cloak for the rest of his life. His wife, the 
mother of Richard Cobden, had borne the gracious maiden-name 
of Millicent Amber. Unlike her kindly helpless husband, she 
was endowed with native sense, shrewdness, and force of mind, 
but the bravery of women in such cases can seldom avail against 
the shift lessnoss of men. The economic currents oi' the time 
might seem to have been all in their favor. The war and the 
scarcity which tilled all the rest of the country with distress, 
rained gold upon farmers and landlords. In the live years during 
which William Cobden was at Guillard's Oak (1809-13), the av- 
erage price ol' wheat was just short of five pounds a quarter. In 
spite of tithes, of war-taxes, and of tremendous poor-rates, the 
landowners extracted royal rents, and the farmers drove a roaring- 
trade. To what use William Cobden put these good times, we do 
not know. After the harvest of 1813, the prospect of peace came, 
and with it a collapse of the artificial inflation of the grain markets. 
Insolvency and distraint became familiar words in the farmhouses 
that a few months before had been revelling in plenty. 



Mr. 1-15.] EARLY LIFE. 3 

William Cobden was not the man to contrive an escape from 
financial disaster. In 1814 the farm was sold, and they moved 
from home to home until at length they made a settlement at 
Westmeon, near Alton in Hampshire. His neighbors were as 
unfortunate as himself, for Cobden was able to say in later years 
that when he returned to his native place, he found that many of 
those who were once his playfellows had sunk down to the rank 
of laborers, and some of them were even working on the roads. 

It is one of the privileges of strength to add to its own the 
burdens of the weak, and helpful kinsfolk are constantly found 
for those whom character or outer circumstance has submerged. 
Relatives of his own, or his wife's, charged themselves with the 
maintenance of William Cobden's dozen children. Richard, less 
happy than the others, was taken away from a dame's school at 
Mid hurst, and cheerful tending of the sheep on his father's 
farm, and was sent by his mother's brother-in-law, a merchant in 
London, to a school in Yorkshire. Here he remained for five 
years, a grim and desolate time, of which he could never after- 
wards endure to speak. This was twenty years before the vivid 
genius and racy style of Dickens had made the ferocious brutal- 
ities of Squeers and the horrors of Dotheboys Hall as univer- 
sally familiar as the best-known scenes of Shakespeare. The 
unfortunate boy from his tenth to his fifteenth year was ill fed, 
ill taught, ill used ; he never saw parent or friend ; and once in 
each quarter he was allowed such singular relief to his feelings 
as finds official expression in the following letter (March 25, 
1817): — 

" Honored Parents, — You cannot tell what rapture I feel at 
my once more having the pleasure of addressing my Parents, and 
though the distance is so great, yet I have an opportunity of con- 
veying it to you free of expense. It is now turned three years 
since our separation took place, and I assure you I look back with 
more pleasure to that period than to any other part of my life 
which was spent to no effectual purpose," and I beg to return you 
my most sincere thanks as being the means of my gaining such a 
sense of learning as will enable me to gain a genteel livelihood 
whenever I am called into the world to do for myself." 

It was not until 1819 that this cruel and disgusting mockery 
of an education came to an end. Cobden was received as a clerk 
in his uncle's warehouse in Old Change. It was some time before 
things here ran easily. Nothing is harder to manage, on either 
side, than the sense of an obligation conferred or received. 
Cobden's uncle and aunt expected servility in the place of grati- 
tude, and, in his own phrase, "inflicted rather than bestowed their 



4 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1819-25. 

bounties." They especially disapproved of his learning French 
lessons in the early hours of the morning in his bedroom, and 
his fondness for book-knowledge was thought of evil omen for 
his future as a man of business. The position became so un- 
pleasant, that in 1822 Cobden accepted the offer of a situation 
in a house of business at Ghent. It promised considerable 
advantages, but his father would not give his approval, and Cob- 
den after some demur fell in with his father's wish. He remained 
where he was, and did not quarrel with such opportunity as he 
had, simply because he had missed a better. It is one of the 
familiar puzzles of life, that those whose want of energy has sunk 
their lives in failure are often so eager to check and disparage 
the energy of stronger natures than their own. 

William Cobden's letters all breathe a soft domesticity which 
is more French than English, and the only real discomfort of his 
poverty to him seems to have been a weak regret that he could 
not have his family constantly around his hearth. Frederick, his 
eldest son, was in the United States for several years ; his father 
was always gently importunate for his return. In 1824 he came 
home, having done nothing by his travels towards bettering for- 
tunes that remained stubbornly unprosperous to the end of his 
life. Between Frederick Cobden and Eichard there always ex- 
isted the warmest friendship, and when the former found a 
situation in London, their intercourse was constant and intimate. 
There were three younger brothers, Charles, Miles, and Henry ; 
and Eichard Cobden was no sooner in receipt of a salary, than 
he at once took the place of a father to them, besides doing all 
that he could to brighten the shabby poverty of the home at 
Westmeon. Whenever he had a holiday, he spent it there ; a 
hamper of such good cheer as his purse could afford was never 
missing at Christmas; and on the long Sundays in summer he 
knew no happier diversion than to walk out to meet his father 
at some roadside inn on the wide Surrey heaths, midway between 
Alton and the great city. His little parchment-bound diary of 
expenses at this time shows him to us as learning to dance and 
to box, playing cards with alternating loss and gain, going now 
and again to Vauxhall Gardens, visiting the theatre to see Charles 
Matthews, buying Brougham on Popular Education, Franklin's 
Essays, and Childe Harold. The sums are puny enough, but a 
gentle spirit seems still to breathe in the poor faded lines and 
quaint French in which he made his entries, as we read of the 
little gifts to his father and brothers, and how he is debtor by 
charity Is. — donne un pauvre gargon, Id. — un pauvrc gargon, 2d. 
By-and-by the sombre Shadow fell upon them all. In 1825 the 
good mother of the house helped to nurse a neighbor's sick child, 
in the midst of an epidemic of typhoid; she caught the fever, 



Mr. 15-21.] EARLY LIFE. 5 

and died at the age of eight and forty. " Out sorrow would be 
torment," Frederick Cobden wrote to his father, " if we could not 
reflect on our conduct towards that dear soul, without calling to 
mind one instance in which we had wilfully given her pain." 
And with this gentle solace they seem to have had good right to 
soothe their affliction. 

The same year which struck Cobden this distressing blow, 
brought him promotion in his business. The early differences 
between himself and his uncle had been smoothed away by his 
industry, cheerfulness, and skill, and he had won the approval 
and good- will of his employers. . From the drudgery of the 
warehouse, he was now advanced to the glories of the road. We 
may smile at the keen elation with which he looked to this pre- 
ferment from the position of clerk to that of traveller ; but human 
dignities are only relative, and a rise in the hierarchy of trade is 
doubtless as good matter for exultation, as a rise in hierarchies 
more elaborately robed. Cobden's new position was peculiarly 
suited to the turn of his character. Collecting accounts and 
soliciting orders for muslins and calicoes gave room in their 
humble sphere for those high inborn qualities of energy, and 
sociability, which in later years produced the most active and the 
most persuasive of popular statesmen. But what made the life 
of a traveller so specially welcome to Cobden was the gratification 
that it offered to the master-passion of his life, an insatiable 
desire to know the affairs of the world. Famous men, who be- 
came his friends in the years to come, agree in the admission that 
they have never known a man in whom this trait of a sound and 
rational desire to know and to learn was so strong and so inex- 
haustible. It was not the curiosity of the infantile dabbler in all 
subjects, random and superficial ; and yet it was as far removed 
from the dry parade of the mere fabulist and statistician. It was 
not bookish, for Cobden always felt that much of what is best 
worth knowing is never written in books. Nor was it the 
curiosity of a speculative understanding; yet, as we shall see 
presently, there soon grew up in his mind a body of theoretic 
principles, and a philosophic conception of modern society, round 
which the knowledge so strenuously sought was habitually 
grouped, and by which the desire to learn was gradually directed 
and configured. 

The information to be gathered in coaches and in the commer- 
cial rooms of provincial hotels was narrow enough in some senses, 
but it was varied, fresh, and in real matter. To a man of Cobden's 
active and independent intelligence this contact with such a 
diversity of interest and character was a congenial process of 
education. Harsh circumstance had left no other education open 
to him. There is something pathetic in an exclamation of one of 



6 LIFE OF COBDEN. . [1825-26. 

his letters of this period, not merely because it concerns a man 

of Cobden's eminence and public service, but because it is the 

case of thousands of less conspicuous figures. In his first journey 

(August — October, 1825) he was compelled to wait for half a 

day at Shrewsbury, for a coach to Manchester. He went to the 

abbey, and was greatly impressed by its venerable walls and 

painted glass. " Oh that I had money," he says to his brother, 

in plain uncultured speech, " to be deep skilled in the mysteries 

of mullions and architraves, in lieu of black and purple and pin 

grounds ! How happy I should be ! " He felt as keenly as Byron 

himself how 

The lore 
Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core 
Of human hearts the ruin of a wall, 
Where dwelt the wise and wondrous. 

Id his second journey he visited the birthplace of Eobert Burns, 
and he wrote to his brother from Aberdeen (Feb. 5, 1826) : — " It 
is a sort of gratification that I am sure you can imagine, but which 
I cannot describe, to feel conscious of treading upon the same 
spot of earth, of viewing the same surrounding objects, and of 
being sheltered by the same roof, as one who equally astonished 
and delighted the world." He describes himself as boiling over 
with enthusiasm upon approaching "Alio way's auld haunted kirk," 
the Brig o' Doon, and the scene of Tarn o' Shanter's headlong ride. 
With a pang of disillusion he found the church so small that 
Cuttie-Sark and her hellish legion can have had scanty space for 
their capering, while the distance to the middle of the old bridge, 
and the length of the furious immortal chase, can have been no 
more than one hundred yards. The party on this occasion were 
accompanied by a small manufacturer from Paisley, who cared 
little for the genius of the place, and found Cobden's spirit of 
hero-worship tiresome. " Our worthy Paisley friend remarked to 
us, as we leaned over the Bridge of Doon, and as its impetuous 
stream rushed beneath us, 'How shamefully,' said he, 'is the 
water-power of this country suffered to run to waste : here is the 
force of twenty horses running completely idle.' He did not 
relish groping among ruins and tombstones at midnight, and was 
particularly solicitous that we should leave matters of discussion 
until we reached Burns's birthplace, where he understood that they 
kept the best whiskey in that vicinity." To Burns's birthplace at 
length they came, where at first their reception was not cordial. 
" But my worthy friend from Paisley had not forgotten the whis- 
key; and so, tapping the chin of the old dame with his forefinger, 
he bade her bring a half-mutchkin of the best, ' to set the wheels 
going,' as he termed it, and, having poured out a glass for the 
hostess, which she swallowed, I was pleased to find that it did set 



jEt.2L] early life. 7 

the wheels of her tongue going. ' Ye would maybe like to gang 
and see the verra spot where poor Robbie was borned,' she said, 
and we instantly begged her to show it to! us. She took us along 
a very short passage, and into a decent-looking kitchen with a 
good fire. There was a curtain hung from the ceiling to the floor, 
which appeared to cover one part of the wall. She drew aside 
the curtain, and it disclosed a bed in the recess of the wall, and 
a man who had been hidden in the clothes first put his head out 
and looked round in stupid amazement, and then rose up in the 
bed and exclaimed, ' What the deil hae ye got here, Lizzie ? ' 
' Whisht, whisht, gudeman ! ' said the old dame, out of whose head 
the whiskey had driven all thoughts of her husband, ' the gentle- 
men will be verra pleased to hear ye tell them a' about poor 
Robbie.' Our Paisley friend had again poured out a glass of 
whiskey and presented it to our host, who drank it off, and, 
bringing his elbow round with a knowing flourish, he returned 
the glass upside down, to show he drank clean. ' I knew Robbie 
weel,' said he, wiping his mouth with his shirt-sleeve. ' I was 
the last man that drank wi' him afore he left this country for 
Dumfries. Oh, he was a bonnie bairn, but owre muckle gien to 
braw company.' ' And this is the spot, gentlemen,' said the 
impatient gudewife, catching the narrative from her husband, 
' where Robbie was borned, and sic a night that was, as I have 
heard Nancy Miller, the coachman's inither, say ; it blew, and 
rained, and thundered, just like as if heaven aud earth were 
dinged thegither, and ae corner of the house was blawn away 
afore the morning, and so they removed the mither and the bairn 
into the next room the day after.' Now I believe, if these two 
bodies were put upon their oath to all they told us, that they 
would not be guilty of falsehood or perjury, for I am quite sure 
they are both persuaded that their tale is true, and from no other 
cause than that they have told it so often. And yet I would 
venture to bet all I possess, and what is more, all I owe, that they 
never saw Burns in all their lives." l 

The genial eye for character and the good-humored tolerance 
of foibles, which so singularly distinguished Cobden in the days 
when he came to act with men for public objects, are conspicuous 
in these early letters. His hospitable observation, even in this ru- 
dimentary stage, seemed to embrace all smaller matters as well as 
great. Though he was little more than one and twenty, he had 
already a sense for those great facts of society which are so much 
more important than landscape and the picturesque, whether in 
books or travels, yet for which the eye and thought of adoles- 
cence are usually trained to be so dull. On his first journey in 

i To F. Cobden, Feb. 5, 1826. 



8 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1825-26. 

Ireland (September, 1825), he notices how immediately after 
the traveller leaves Dublin " you are reminded by the miserable 
tenements in the roadside that you are in the land of poverty, 
ignorance, and misrule. Although my route afforded a favorable 
specimen of the Irish peasantry, it was a sight truly heart-rending. 
There appears to be no middle class in Ireland : there are the rich, 
and those who are objects of wretchedness and almost starvation. 
We passed through some collections of huts called towns, where 
I observed the pig taking his food in the same room with the 
family, and where I am told he is always allowed to sleep. Shoes 
and stockings are luxuries that neither men nor women often 
aspire to. Their cabins are made of mud or sometimes stone. I 
observed many without any glass, and they rarely contain more 
than one room, which answers the purpose of sitting-room and 
sleeping-room for themselves and their pig." 

Even in Dublin itself he saw what made an impression upon 
him, which ten years later he tried to convey to the readers of his 
first pamphlet. " The river Liffey intersects the city, and ships 
of 200 tons may anchor nearly in the heart of Dublin ; but it is 
here the stranger is alone disappointed ; the small number of 
shipping betrays their limited commerce. It is melancholy to 
see their spacious streets (into some of which the whole tide of 
Cheapside might with ease move to and fro), with scarcely a vehi- 
cle through their whole extent. Whilst there is so little circula- 
tion in the heart, can it be wondered at that the extremities are 
poor and destitute ? " 1 

If one side of Cobden's active and flexible mind was interested 
by these miserable scenes, another side, as we have said, was 
touched by the strange whimsicalities of man. In February, 
1826, he crossed from Donaghadee, on the northwest coast of 
Ireland, to Portpatrick. 

" Our captain was named Paschal — he was a short figure, but 
made the most of a little matter by strutting as upright as a dart, 
and throwing back his head, and putting forward his little chest 
in an attitude of defiance. It appeared to be the ambition of our 
little commander to make matters on board his little dirty steam- 
boat wear the same air of magnitude as on board a seventy-four. 
I afterwards learned he had once been captain on board of a king's 
ship. His orders were all given through a ponderous trumpet, 
although his three men could not be more than ten yards distant 
from him. Still he bore the air of a gentleman, and was accus- 
tomed to have the fullest deference paid him by his three seamen. 
On approaching near the Harbor of Portpatrick, our captain put 
his huge trumpet down the hole that led below, and roared out, 

i To F. Cobden, Sept. 20, 1825. 



Mt. 21-22.] EARLY LIFE. 9 

at the risk of stunning us all, ' Steward-boy, bring up a gun car- 
tridge, and have a care you don't take a candle into the Maga- 
zine ! ' The order was obeyed, the powder was carried up, and 
after a huge deal of preparation and bustling ;to and fro on the 
deck, the trumpet was again poked down to a level with our ears, 
and the steward was again summoned to bring up a match. Soon 
after which we heard the report of something upon deck like the 
sound of a duck-gun. After that, the order was given, 'All hands 
to the larboard — clear the gangway and lower the larboard steps,' 
or in other words, ' Help the passengers to step on to the pier.' " * 

In the same letter he congratulates himself on having been 
fortunate enough, when he strolled into the Court of Session, to 
see Jeffery, Cockburn, and Sir Walter Scott. One cannot pass 
the mention of the last and greatest of the three, — the bravest, 
soundest-hearted, and most lovable of men, — without noting that 
this day, when Cobden saw him, was only removed by three 
weeks from " that awful seventeenth of January," when Scott 
received the staggering blow of desperate and irretrievable ruin. 
It was only ten days before that he had gone to the Court for 
the first time, " and, like the man with the large nose, thought 
that everybody was thinking of him and his mishaps." 

This, in fact, was the hour of one of the most widely disastrous 
of those financial crashes which sweep over the country from 
time to time like great periodic storms. The ruin of 1825 and 
1826 was never forgotten by those who had intelligence enough 
to be alive to what was going on before their eyes. The whirl- 
wind that shook the fabric of Scott's prosperity to the ground, 
involved Cobden's humbler fortunes in a less imposing catastro- 
phe. His employers failed (February, 1826), as did so many 
thousands of others, and he was obliged to spend some time in 
unwelcome holiday at Westmeon. 

Affairs were as straitened under his father's roof as they had 
always been. The sun was not likely to be shining in that little 
particular spot, if the general sky were dull. The perturbations 
of the great ocean were felt even in that small circle, and, while 
retail customers at their modest shop were reluctant to buy or 
unable to pay, the wholesale provider in London was forced to 
narrow his credit and call in his debts. The family stood closely 
to one another in the midst of a swarm of shabby embarrass- 
ments, and their neighbors looked on in friendly sympathy, impo- 
tent to help. Strangely enough, as some may think, they do not 
seem to have been very unhappy. They were all blessed by 
nature with a kind of blissful mercurial simplicity, that hindered 
their anxieties from eating into character. Their healthy buoy- 

1 To F. Cobden. 



10 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1826-28. 

ancy would not allow carking care to put the sun out in the 
heavens. When things were dreariest, Eichard Cobden rowed 
himself across the Solent and back, and with one of his sisters 
enjoyed cheery days in the Isle of Wight, and among his kinsfolk 
at Chichester and elsewhere. Perhaps it was fortunate that his 
energetic spirit was free for the service of his family, at a moment 
when they seemed to be sinking below the surface. It was clear 
that means for the support of the household could only be found 
in some more considerable place than Westmeon. Presently it 
was resolved to migrate to Farnham, renowned for the excellence 
of its hop-gardens, for the stateliest of episcopal castles, and for 
its associations with two of the finest writers of English prose, 
William Cobbett, who was the son of a Farnham cottager, and Jona- 
than Swift, who had been Sir William Temple's secretary at Moor 
Park a mile or two away. Thinking less of any of these things 
than of the hard eternal puzzle how to make sure of food and 
a roof-tree in the world, William Cobden migrated hither in the 
beginning of 1827. " The thought of leaving this dear village," 
one of his daughters had written (July, 1826), "endeared to us 
by a thousand tender recollections, makes me completely misera- 
ble." This dejection was shared in a supreme degree by the 
head of the household. He found some consolation in the good- 
will that he left behind him ; and his old neighbors, when they 
were busy with turnip-sowing, hay-making, and sheep-shearing, 
were wont to invite him, partly for help and work, and partly for 
kindly fellowship's sake, to pay them long visits, never failing 
to send a horse up the road to meet him for his convenience and 
the furtherance of his journey. 

Richard Cobden, meanwhile, had found a situation in London, 
in the warehouse of Partridge and Price. Mr. Partridge had for 
seven years been one of Cobden's employers in the house which 
had failed, and he now resumed business with a new partner. 
He had learned, in his own words, Cobden's capacity of rendering 
himself pre-eminently useful, and he re-engaged him after a cer- 
tain effort to drive a hard bargain as to salary. In September, 
1826, Cobden again set out on the road with his samples of mus- 
lin and calico prints. He continued steadily at work for two 
years, travelling on an average, while on his circuit, at what was 
then thought, when the Manchester and Liverpool railway was 
only in course of construction, the brisk rate of forty miles a day. 

Two years afterwards, in 1828, Cobden took an important step. 
He and two friends who were in the same trade determined to 
beoin business on their own account. The scheme of the three 
friends was to go to Manchester, and there to make an arrange- 
ment with some large firm of calico-printers for selling goods on 
commission. More than half of the little capital was borrowed. 



JEt. 22-24.] EARLY LIFE. 11 

When the scheme first occurred to Cobden, he is said to have 
gone to Mr. Lewis of the well-known firm in Kegent Street, to 
have laid the plan before him, and asked for a loan. The bor- 
rower's sanguine eloquence, advising a project that in itself was 
not irrational, proved successful, and Mr. Lewis's advance was 
supplemented by a further sum from a private friend. 

Cobden wrote many years afterwards : " I began business in 
partnership with two other young men, and we only mustered a 
thousand pounds amongst us, and more than half of it was bor- 
rowed. We all got on the Peveril of the Peak coach, and went 
from London to Manchester in the, at that day [September, 1828], 
marvellously short space of twenty hours. We were literally so 
ignorant of Manchester houses that we called for a directory at 
the hotel, and turned to the list of calico-printers, theirs being 
the business with which we were acquainted, and they being the 
people from whom we felt confident we could obtain credit. And 
why ? Because we knew we should be able to satisfy them that 
we had advantages from our large connections, our knowledge of 
the best branch of the business in London, and our superior taste 
in design, which would insure success. We introduced ourselves 
to Fort Brothers and Co., a rich house, and we told our tale, hon- 
estly concealing nothing. In less than two years from 1830 we 
owed them forty thousand pounds for goods which they had sent 
to us in Watling Street, upon no other security than our charac- 
ters and knowledge of our business. I frequently talked with 
them in later times upon the great confidence they showed in 
men who avowed that they were not possessed of 200/. each. 
Their answer was that they would always prefer to trust young 
men with connections and with a knowledge of their trade, if they 
knew them to possess character and ability, to those who started 
with capital without these advantages, and that they had acted 
on this principle successfully in all parts of the world." 1 

This is from a letter written to express Cobden's firm belief in 
the general circumstance, "that it is the character, experience, 
and connections of the man wanting credit, his knowledge of his 
business, and opportunities of making it available in the struggle 
of life, that weigh with the shrewd capitalist far more than the 
actual command of a few thousands more or less of money in 
hand." We may find reason to think that Cobden's temperament 
perhaps inclined him to push this excellent truth somewhat too 
far. Meanwhile, the sun of kindly hope shone. The situation 
is familiar to all who have had their own way to make from 
obscurity to success, whether waiting for good fortune in Temple 
chambers, or a publisher's anteroom, or the commercial parlor of 

1 Letter to Mr. W. S. Lindsay, March 24, 1856. 



12 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1828-32. 

some provincial Crown or Unicorn. " During the time we have 
been here," Cobden wrote from Manchester, while affairs were 
still unsettled, " we have been in a state of suspense, and you 
would be amused to see us but for one day. Oh, such a change 
of moods ! This moment we are all jocularity and laughter, and 
the next we are mute as fishes and grave as owls. To do our- 
selves justice, I must say that our croakings do not generally last 
more than five minutes." 

Intense anxiety for the success of the undertaking was bright- 
ened by modest hopes of profits, of which a share of one third should 
amount to eight hundred pounds a year. And in Cobden's case 
these hopes received a suffusion of generous color from the prospect 
which they opened to his affectionate solicitude for his family. 
" I knew your heart well enough," he wrote to his brother Fred- 
erick, " to feel that there is a large portion of it ever warmly de- 
voted to my interests, and I should be doing injustice to mine if I 
did not tell you that I have not one ambitious view or hope from 
which you stand separated. I feel that Fortune, with her usual 
caprice, has in dealing with us turned her face to the least deserving, 
but we will correct her mistake for once, and I must insist that you 
from henceforth consider yourself as by right my associate in all her 
favors." — (Sept. 21,1828.) 

The important thing is that all this is no mere coinage of fair 
words, but the expression of a deep and genuine intention, which 
was amply and most diligently fulfilled to the very last hour of 
Cobden's life. 



CHAPTEE II. 

COMMEECIAL AND MENTAL PROGRESS. 

Cobden had not been many months in his new partnership before 
his energetic mind teemed with fresh projects. The arrangement 
with the Forts had turned out excellently. The Lancashire 
printers, as we have seen, sent up their goods to the warehouse of 
Cobden and his two partners in Watling Street, in London. On 
the commission on the sale of these goods the little, firm lived and 
throve from the spring of 1829 to 1831. In 1831 they determined 
to enlarge their borders, and to print their own goods. The con- 
ditions of the trade had just undergone a remarkable change. It 
had hitherto been burdened by a heavy duty, which ranged from 
as much as fifty or sixty to even one hundred per cent of the 
value of the goods. In addition to excess in amount, there was 



Ms. 24-28.] COMMERCIAL AND MENTAL PROGRESS. 13 

a vexatious eccentricity of incidence ; for woollens and silks were 
exempt, while calicoes were loaded with a duty that, as has been 
said, sometimes actually made up one half of the total cost of the 
cloth to the purchasers. As is invariably the case in fiscal history, 
excessive and ill-adjusted imposts led to systematic fraud. Amid 
these forces of disorder, it is no wonder that from 1825 to 1830 
the trade was stationary. The Lancashire calico-printers kept up 
a steady agitation, and at one time it was proposed to raise four 
thousand pounds for the purchase of a seat in Parliament for a 
representative of their grievances. The agitation was successful. 
The duty was taken off in the spring of 1831, and between 1831 
and 1841 the trade doubled itself. 

This great change fully warranted the new enterprise of Cobden 
and his partners. They took over from the Forts an old calico- 
printing factory at Sabden, — a remote village on the banks of a 
tributary of the Calder, near the ruined gateways and chapel of 
the Cistercian abbey at Whalley in Lancashire, and a few miles 
from where are now the fine mills and flourishing streets of Black- 
burn. The higher part of the Sabden valley runs up into the 
famous haunted Forest of Pendle ; and notwithstanding the tall 
chimneys that may be seen dimly in the distance of the plaiu, the 
visitor to this sequestered spot may well feel as if the old world of 
white monks and forest witches still lingered on the bleak hill- 
sides. Cobden was all with the new world. His imagination had 
evidently been struck by the busy life of the county with which 
his name was destined to be so closely bound up. Manchester, he 
writes with enthusiasm, is the place for all men of bargain and 
business. His pen acquires a curiously exulting animation, as he 
describes the bustle of its streets, the quaintness of its dialect, the 
abundance of its capital, and the sturdy veterans with a hundred 
thousand pounds in each pocket, who might be seen in the evening 
smoking clay pipes and calling for brandy and water in the bar- 
parlors of homely taverns. He declared his conviction, from what 
he had seen, that if he were stripped naked and turned into Lan- 
cashire with only his experience for a capital, he would still make 
a large fortune. He would not give anybody sixpence to guarantee 
him wealth, if he only lived. 1 And so forth, in a vein of self-confi- 
dence which he himself well described as Napoleonic. " I am ever 
solicitous," he wrote to his brother (Jan. 30, 1832), " for your future 
prosperity, and I wish that I could convince you, as I feel con- 
vinced, that it all depends upon your bringing out with spirit the 
talents you possess. I wish that I could impart to you a little of 
that Bonapartian feeling with which I am imbued, — a feeling that 
spurs me on with the conviction that all the obstacles to fortune 

1 Letters to Frederick Cot/den, Aug. 11, 1831, Jan. 6, 1832, &c. 



14 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1832. 

with which I am impeded will (nay, shall) yield if assailed with 
energy. All is lost to you, if you succumb to those desponding 
views which you mentioned when we last spoke. Dame Fortune, 
like other fair ones, loves a brisk and confident wooer. I want 
to see you able to pitch your voice in a higher key, especially 
when you are espousing your own interests, and above all, never to 
see you yield or become passive and indifferent when your cause is 
just, and only wants to be spiritedly supported to be sure of a 
triumph. But all this must proceed from within, and can be only 
the fruits of a larger growth of spirit, to the cultivation of which 
without further lecture I most earnestly commend you." 

A more curious picture still is to be found in another letter, also 
to his brother, written a few months later (April 12, 1832). He 
describes his commercial plans as full of solidity, " sure for the 
present, and, what is still better, opening a vista to my view of 
ambitious hopes and schemes almost boundless. Sometimes I con- 
fess I allow this sort of feeling to gain a painful and harassing 
ascendency over me. It disquiets me in the night as well as day. 
It gnaws my very entrails (a positive truth), and yet if I ask, 
What is all this yearning after ? I can scarcely give myself a 
satisfying answer. Surely not for money ; I feel a disregard for it, 
and even a slovenly inattention to its possession, that is quite 
dangerous. I have scarcely ever, as usual, a sovereign in my 
pocket, and have been twice to Whalley, to find myself without 
the means of paying my expenses. I do not think that the pos- 
session of millions would greatly alter my habits of expense." 

As we might have expected in so buoyant and overflowing a 
temperament, moments of reaction were not absent, though the 
shadow was probably as swiftly transient with him as with any 
man that ever lived. In one of the letters of this period he 
writes to his brother : — "I know I must rise rapidly if not too 
heavily weighted. Another doleful letter from poor M. [one of 
his sisters] came yesterday. Oh, this is the only portion of the 
trials of my life that I could not go through again — the ordeal 
would send me to Bedlam ! Well, I drown the past in still hop- 
ing for the future, but God knows whether futurity will be as 
great a cheat as ever. I sometimes think it will. I tell you 
candidly, I am sometimes out of spirits, and have need of co-opera- 
tion, or Heaven knows yet what will become of my fine castles 
in the air. So you must bring spirits — spirits — spirits" 

Few men indeed have been more heavily weighted at the start 
than Cobden was. His family was still dogged and tracked from 
place to place by the evil genius of slipshod fortune. In 1829 
Frederick Cobden began the business of a timber merchant at 
Barnet, but unhappily the undertaking was as little successful 
as other things to which he ever put his hand. The little busi- 



Mi. 28.] COMMERCIAL AND MENTAL PROGRESS. 15 

ness at Farnham had failed, and had been abandoned. William 
Cobden went to live with his son at Barnet, and amused a favor- 
ite passion by watching the hundred and twenty coaches which 
each day whirled up and down the great north road. Nothing- 
prospered. Death carried off a son and a daughter in the same 
year (1830). Frederick lost health, and he lost his brother's 
money, and spirits followed. He and his father make a strong 
instance of the deep saying of Shakespeare's Enobarbus, how 
men's judgments are a parcel of their fortunes, and things out- 
ward draw the inward quality after them to suffer all alike. 
Stubborn and besetting failure generally warps good sense, and 
this is the hard warrant for the man of the world's anxiety to 
steer clear of unlucky people. 

Eichard Cobden, however, had energy enough and to spare for 
the rest of his family. He pressed his brother to join him at 
Manchester, where he had bought a house in what was then the 
genteel private quarter of Mosley Street. 1 Gillett and Sheriff 
carried on the business at the London warehouse, and Mr. George 
Foster, who had been manager under the Forts, was now in charge 
as a partner at the works at Sabden. 

It is at Sabclen that we first hear of Cobden's interest in the 
affairs of others than himself and his kinsfolk. There, in a little 
stone school-house, we see the earliest monument of his eager 
and beneficent public spirit, which was destined to shed such 
prosperity over his country, and to contribute so helpfully to the 
civilization of the globe. In no part of England have the last 
forty years wrought so astonishing a change as among the once 
lonely valleys and wild moors of east Lancashire. At Sabden, in 
1832, though the print-works alone maintained some six hundred 
wage-receivers, there was no school, and there was no church. A 
diminutive Baptist chapel, irregularly served, was the only agency 
for bringing, so far as it did bring, the great religious tradition 
of the western world within reach of this isolated flock. The 
workers practised a singular independence towards their em- 
ployers. They took it as matter of course that they were free, 

1 To those who care for a measure of the immense growth in the great capital of 
the cotton trade, tire following extract will have some interest : — 

" I have given such a start to Mosley Street, that all the world will be at my heels 
soon. My next door neighbor, Brooks, of the firm of Cunliffe and Brooks, bank- 
ers, has sold his house to be converted into a warehouse. The owner of the house on 
the other side has given his tenant notice for the same purpose. The house imme- 
diately opposite to me has been announced for sale, and my architect is commissioned 
by George Hole, the calico-printer, to bid 6000 guineas for it ; but they want 8000 
for what they paid 4500 only five years ago. The architect assures me, if I were to put 
up my house to-morrow, I might have 6000 guineas for it. So as I gave but 3000, 
and all the world is talking of the bargain here, and there being but one opinion 
or criterion of a man's ability — the making of money — I am already thought a 
clever fellow." — Letter to Frederick Cobden, Sept. 1832. 



16 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1832-36. 

whenever it was their good pleasure, and without leave asked or 
given, to quit their work for a whole week at once, and to set out 
on a drinking expedition to some neighboring town, whence they 
would have been ashamed to return until their pockets were 
drained to the last penny. Yet if there was little religion, there 
was great political spirit. There is a legend still surviving, how 
Mr. Foster, a Liberal of the finest and most enlightened type, 
with a clear head and a strong intelligence, and the good old- 
fashioned faith in freedom, justice, and progress, led the Sabden 
contingent of zealous voters to Clitheroe for the first election after 
the Eeform Act, and how, like a careful patriarch, he led them 
quickly back again after their civil duty was clone ; leaving the 
taverns of Clitheroe behind, and refreshing themselves at the 
springs on the hill-side. The politics of Sabden were not always 
so judicious, for it appears that no baptismal name for the chil- 
dren born in the valley between 1830 and 1840 was so univer- 
sally popular as that of Feargus O'Connor. 

It was in this far-off corner of the world that Cobden began 
his career as an agitator, and for a cause in which all England 
has long since come round to his mind. His earliest speeches 
were made at Clitheroe on behalf of the education of the young, 
and one of his earliest letters on what may fairly be called a pub- 
lic question is a note making arrangements for the exhibition at 
Sabden of twenty children from an infant school at Manchester, 
by way of an example and incentive to more backward regions. 
It was characteristic of him, that he threw as much eager enthu- 
siasm into the direction of this exhibition of school-children, as 
ever he did afterwards into great affairs of state. His partner 
was a worthy colleague. 

" You have ground," Cobden wrote to him, " for very great and 
just self-gratulation in the movement which you announce to 
have begun in behalf of infant schools at Sabden. There is 
never the possibility of knowing the extent to which a philan- 
thropic action may operate usefully — because the good works 
again multiply in like manner, and may continue thus to pro- 
duce valuable fruits long after you cease to tend the growth of 
them. I have always been of opinion that good examples are 
more influential than bad ones, and I like to take this view of the 
case, because it strengthens my good hopes for general and per- 
manent ameliorations. Look how perishable is the practice, and 
therefore how little is to be dreaded the eternity of evil; whilst 
goodness or virtue by the very force of example, and by its own 
indestructible nature, must go on increasing and multiplying for- 
ever ! I really think you may achieve the vast honor of making 
Sabden a light to lighten the surrounding country, and carrying 
civilization into towns that ought to have shed rays of knowledge 



Mi. 28-32.] COMMERCIAL AND MENTAL PROGRESS. 17 

upon your village ; when you have furnished a volunteer corps of 
your infant troops to teach the tactics of the system to the people 
of Clitheroe, you should make an offer of a similar service gratis 
to the good people of Padihan. Let it be done in a formal and 
open manner to the leading people of the place and neighborhood, 
who will thus be openly called upon to exert themselves, and be 
at the same time instructed how to go about the business. There 
are many well-meaning people in the world who are not so useful as 
they might be, from not knowing how to go to work." 1 

His perception of the truth of the last sentence, coupled as it 
was with untiring energy in coping with it, and showing people 
how they could go to work best, was the secret of one of the most 
important sides of Cobden's public service. It was this which, 
along with his acute political intelligence, made him so singularly 
effective. " You tell me," he wrote on one occasion to his part- 
ner, "to take time and be comfortable, but I fear quiet will not 
be my lot this trip. I sometimes dream of quiet, but then I rec- 
ollect Byron's line, — 

Quiet to quick bosoms is a hell, 

and I am afraid he is nearly right in my case." 2 Yet this dis- 
quiet never in him degenerated into the sterile bustle which so 
many restless spirits have mistaken for practical energy. Behind 
all his sanguine enthusiasm as to public ends, laj^ the wisest pa- 
tience as to means. 

What surprises one in reading the letters which Cobden wrote 
between 1833 and 1836, is the quickness with which his charac- 
ter widened and ripened. We pass at a single step from the nat- 
ural and wholesome egotism of the young man who has his bread 
to win, to the wide interests and generous public spirit of the 
good citizen. His first motion was towards his own intellectual 
improvement. Even at a moment when he might readily have 
been excused for thinking only of money and muslins, he felt and 
obeyed the necessity for knowledge : but of knowledge as an 
instrument, not as a luxury. When he was immersed in the first 
pressing anxieties of his new business at Manchester, he wrote to 
his brother in London (September, 1832) : — 

" Might we not in the winter instruct ourselves a little in 
Mathematics ? If you will call at Longmans and look over their 
catalogue, I dare say you might find some popular elementary 
publication that would assist us. I have a great disposition, too, 
to know a little Latin, and six months would suffice if I had a 
few books. Can you trust your perseverance to stick to them ? 
I think I can. Let me hear from you. I wished Henry to take 

1 To Mr. George Foster, April 14, 1836. 

2 To Mr. Foster, May 14, 1836. 



18 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1833-36. 

lessons in Spanish this winter ; it is most useful as a commercial 
language ; the two Americas will be our best and largest custom- 
ers in spite of tariffs." 

He had early in life felt the impulse of composition. His 
first writing was a play, entitled The Phrenologist, and Cobden 
offered it to the manager of Covent Garden Theatre. He rejected 
it — " luckily for me," Cobden added, " for if he had accepted it, 
I should probably have been a vagabond all the rest of my life." 
Another comedy still survives in manuscript ; it is entirely with- 
out quality, and if the writer ever looked at it in riper years, he 
probably had no difficulty in understanding why the manager 
would have nothing to do with it. His earliest political work 
consisted of letters addressed anonymously to one of the Man- 
chester newspapers (1835) on the subject of the incorporation of 
the borough. But it was the pamphlet of 1835, England, Ire- 
land, and America, which first showed the writer's power. Of 
the political teaching of this performance we shall say something 
in another chapter. Here we mention it as illustrating the direc- 
tion in which Cobden's thoughts were busy, and the kind of 
nourishment with which he was strengthening his understanding 
during the years previous to his final launch forth upon the sea of 
great affairs. 

This pamphlet and that which followed it in the next year, 
show by their references and illustrations that the writer, after 
his settlement in Manchester in the autumn of 1832, had made 
himself acquainted with the greatness of Cervantes, the geniality 
of Le Sage, the sweetness of Spenser, the splendid majesty of 
Burke, no less than with the general course of European history 
in the past, and the wide forces that were then actually at work 
in the present. One who had intimate relations with Cobden in 
these earlier years of his career, described him to me as always 
writing and speaking " to the top of his knowledge." The real 
meaning of this, I believe, was that Cobden had a peculiar gift 
for turning everything that he read to useful purpose in strength- 
ening or adorning his arguments. He only read or listened where 
he expected to find help, and his quickness in assimilating was 
due to a combination of strong concentration of interest on his 
own subject, with keen dexterity in turning light upon it from 
other subjects. Or, in saying that Cobden alw 7 ays spoke and 
wrote to the top of his knowledge, our informant was perhaps 
expressing what any one may well feel in reading his pamphlets 
and speeches, namely, that he had a mind so intensely alive, so 
penetrative, so real, as to be able by means of moderate knowl- 
edge rapidly acquired, to get nearer to the root of the matter, than 
others who had labored after a far more extensive preparation. 

Very early in life Cobden perceived, and he never ceased to 



Ms. 29-32.] COMMERCIAL AND MENTAL PROGRESS. 19 

perceive, that for his purposes no preparation could be so effect- 
ive as that of travel. He first went abroad in the summer of 
1833 (July), when he visited Paris in search of designs for his 
business. He did not on this occasion stay long enough to derive 
any ideas about France that are worth recording now. He hardly 
got beyond the common English impression that the French are a 
nation of grown-up children, though he described the habit of 
Parisian life in a happy phrase, as "pleasure without poiyip." 1 

In the following year he again went to France, and continued 
his journey to Switzerlaud. The forests and mountains inspired 
him with the admiration and awe that no modern can avoid. 
Once in after-years, a friend who was about to visit the United 
States asked him whether it would be worth while to go far out 
of his way for the sake of seeing the Falls of Niagara. " Yes, 
most assuredly," was Cobden's reply. " Nature has the sublimity 
of rest, and the sublimity of motion. The sublimity of rest is in 
the great snow mountains ; the sublimity of motion is in Niagara." 

Although he had to its fullest extent this sentiment for the im- 
posing glories of the inanimate universe, yet it is characteristic 
of his right sense of the true measure of things, that, after speak- 
ing of Swiss scenery, he remarks to his brother, as " better still," 
that he has made acquaintance with people who could tell him 
about the life and institutions of the land. " The people of this 
country are I believe the best governed and therefore the most 
prosperous and happy in the world. It is the only Government 
which has not one douanier in its pay, and yet, thanks to free 
trade, there is scarcely any branch of manufacturing industry 
which does not in one part or other of the country find a healthy 
occupation. The farmers are substantial. Here is a far more 
elevated character of husbandry life than I expected to see. Enor- 
mous farm-houses and barns ; plenty of out-houses of every kind ; 
and the horses and cows are superior to those of the English 
farmers. The sheep and pigs are very, very bad. They have not 
adopted the Chinese breed of the latter, and the former they do 
not pay much attention to. I did not see a field of turnips in all 
the country. Cows are the staple of the farming trade." 2 

It was to the United States, rather even than to Switzerland, 
that Cobden's social faith and enthusiasm turned ; and after his 
pamphlet was published in the spring of 1835, he resolved to see 
with his own eyes the great land of uncounted promise. Busi- 
ness was prosperous, and though his partners thought in their 
hearts that he might do better by attending to affairs at home, 
they allowed some freedom to the enterprising genius of their 
ally, and made no objection to his absence. 

1 To F. Cobden, July 27, 1833. 

2 To F. Cobden. From Geneva, June 6, 1834. 



20 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835. 

Meanwhile his father had died (June 15, 1833). When Fred- 
erick Cobden had joined his brother in Manchester, the old man 
had gone to live with his daughters in London. But he could 
not bear the process of transplanting. He pined for his old life 
in the beloved country, and his health failed rapidly. They re- 
moved him shortly before he died to Droxford, but it was too late, 
and he did not long survive the change. The last few months of 
a life that would have been very dreary but for the undying glow 
of family affection, were gilded by the reflection of his son's pros- 
perity. 

It is the bitterest element in the vast irony of human life that 
the time-worn eyes to which a son's success would have brought 
the purest gladness, are so often closed forever before success has 
come. 



CHAPTEE III. 

TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 

On May 1, 1835, Cobden left Manchester, took his passage in the 
Britannia, and after a boisterous and tiresome voyage of more 
than five weeks in the face of strong west winds, arrived in the 
port of New York on June 7. His brother, Henry, who had gone 
to America some time previously, met him on the wharf. In his 
short diary of the tour, Cobden almost begins the record by ex- 
claiming, " What beauty will this inner bay of New York present 
centuries hence, when wealth and commerce shall have done their 
utmost to embellish the scene ! " And writing to his brother, he 
expresses his joy at finding himself in a country, " on the soil of 
which I fondly hope will be realized some of those dreams of 
human exaltation, if not of perfection, with which I love to con- 
sole myself." 1 

It is not necessary to follow the itinerary of the thirty-seven 
days which Cobden now passed in the United States. He visited 
the chief cities of the Eastern shore, but found his way no farther 
west than Buffalo and Pittsburg. Cobden was all his life long 
remarkable for possessing the traveller's most priceless resource, 
patience and good-humor under discomfort. He was a match 
for the Americans themselves, whose powers of endurance under 
the small tribulations of railways and hotels excite the envy of 
Europeans. "Poland [in Ohio]," Cobden notes in his journal, 

1 To F. C., June 7, 1835. 



JIt.31.] TRAVELS IN "WEST AND EAST. 21 

" where we changed coaches, is a pretty thriving little town, 
chiefly of wood, with two or three brick houses, quite in the Eng- 
lish style. We proceeded to Young's Town, six miles, and there 
asfain changed coaches, but had to wait three hours of the ni^ht 
until the branch stage arrived, and I lost my temper for the first 
time in America, in consequence." 

He remarked that politics were rarely discussed in public con- 
veyances. " Here [in Ohio] I found, as in every other company, 
the slavery blot viewed as an indelible stain upon, and a curse to, 
the country. An intelligent old gentleman said he would prefer 
the debt of Great Britain to the colored population of the United 
States. All agreed in the hopelessness of any remedy that had 
been proposed." 

Cobden's curiosity and observation were as alert and as varied 
as usual, from wages, hours of labor, quality of land, down to swift 
trotters, and a fellow-traveller " who wore gold spectacles, talked 
of ' taste,' and questioned me about Bulwer, Lady Blessington, 
and the Duke of Devonshire, but chewed tobacco and spat inces- 
santly, clearing the lady, out of the window." He felt the emo- 
tions of Moses "on Pisgah, as he looked down from one of the 
northern spurs of the Alleghanies : — 

"Passing over the last summit of the Alleghanies, called Laurel 
Hill, we looked down upon a plain country, the beginning of that 
vast extent of territory known as the Great Mississippi Valley, 
which extends almost without variation of surface to the base of 
the Rocky Mountains, and increases in fertility and beauty the 
further it extends westward. Here will one day be the head- 
quarters of agricultural and manufacturing industry ; here will 
one day centre the civilization, the wealth, the power of the en- 
tire world. The country is well cleared, it has been occupied by 
Europeans only eighty years, and it is the best soil I have seen 
on this side of the Atlantic. Any number of able-bodied laborers 
may, the moment they tread the grass west of the Alleghanies, 
have employment at two shillings a day and be 'found.' We ar- 
rived at Brownsville at four o'clock, the only place I have yet seen 
that uses coals for fuel. We are now in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania. Thank God I am no longer in the country of slaves." x 

On coaches and steamboats he was constantly struck, as all 
travellers in America have been, by the vehement and sometimes 
unreasonable national self-esteem of the people. At the theatre 
at Pittsburg he remarked the enthusiasm with which any republi- 
can sentiment was caught up, and he records the rapturous cheers 
that greeted the magniloquent speech of one of the characters, — 
" No crowned head in Christendom can boast that he ever com- 

1 To F. Cobden, June 15, 1835. 



22 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835. 

manded for one hour the services of this right arm." The Ameri- 
cans were at that time suffering one of their too common fits of 
smart and irritation under English criticism. They never saw 
an Englishman without breaking out against Mrs. Trollope, Cap- 
tain Basil Hall, and, above all, Fanny Kemble. " Nothing but 
praise unqualified and unadulterated will satisfy people of such a 
disposition. We passed by the scene of Braddock's defeat by the 
French and Indians on Turtle Creek. Our American friends 
talked of New Orleans." : Their self-glorification sometimes 
roused Cobden to protest, though he thought he saw signs that 
it was likely to diminish, as has indeed been the case : — 

" It strikes me that the organ of self-esteem is destined to be 
the national feature in the craniums of this people. They are 
the most insatiable gourmands of flattery and praise that ever 
existed. I mean praise 1 of their country, its institutions, great 
men, etcetera. I was, for instance, riding out with a Judge 
Boardman and a lady, when the Judge, speaking of Daniel 
Webster, said, quite coolly, and without a smile, for I looked for 
one very closely, thinking he joked, ' I do not know if the great 
Lord Chatham might not have been his equal, but certainly no 
British statesman has since his day deserved to be compared 
with him.' And the lady, in the same serious tone, asked me 
if I did not find the private carriages handsomer in New York 
than ours were in England ! I have heard all sorts of absurdities 
spoken in reference to the glorious incidents" of this nation's 
history, and very often have been astonished to find my attention 
called (with a view to solicit my concurrence with the enthusi- 
astic praises of the speaker) to battles and other events which I 
had never heard of before, and which yet the Americans consider 
to be as familiarly known to all the world as to themselves. I 
consider this failing — - perhaps, as a good phrenologist, I might 
almost term it a disease — to be an unfortunate peculiarity. There 
is no cure for it, however. On the contrary, it will go on increas- 
ing with the increase of the wealth, power, and population of the 
United States, so long as they are United, but no longer. I have 
generally made it a rule to parry the inquiries and compari- 
sons which the Americans are so apt to thrust at an Englishman. 
On one or two occasions, when the party has been numerous and 
worth powder and shot, I have, however, on being hard pressed, 
and finding my British blood up, found the only mode of allay- 
ing their inordinate vanity to be by resorting to this mode of 
argument: — 'I admit all that you or any other person can, 
could, may, or might advance in praise of the past career of 
the people of America. Nay, more, I will myself assert that 

1 To F. C, June 16, 1835. See below, p. 23, n. 



Mr. 81.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 23 

no nation ever did, and in my opinion none ever will, achieve 
such a title to respect, wonder, and gratitude in so short a period ; 
and further still, I venture to allege that the imagination of 
statesmen never dreamed of a country that should in half a cen- 
tury make such prodigious advances in civilization and real great- 
ness as yours has done. And now I must add, and I am sure 
you, as intelligent, reasonable men, will go with me, that fifty 
years are too short a period in the existence of nations to entitle 
them to the palm of history. No, wait the ordeal of wars, dis- 
tresses, and prosperity (the most dangerous of all), which centu- 
ries of duration are sure to bring to your country. These are the 
test, and if, many ages hence, your descendants shall be able only 
to say of their country as much as I am entitled to say of mine 
now, that for seven hundred years we have existed as a nation 
constantly advancing in liberty, wealth, and refinement ; holding- 
out the lights of philosophy and true religion to all the world ; 
presenting mankind with the greatest of human institutions in 
the trial by jury ; and that we are the only modern people that 
for so long a time withstood the attacks of enemies so heroically 
that a foreign foe never put foot in our capital except as a pris- 
oner (this last is a poser x ) ; — if many centuries hence your de- 
scendants will be entitled to say something equivalent to this, 
then, and not till then, will you be entitled to that crown of fame 
which the historian of centuries is entitled to award.' There 
is no way of conveying a rebuke so efficiently as upon the back 
of a compliment. So in like manner, if I have been bored about 
New Orleans, I have replied, ' I join in all that can be said in 
favor of General Jackson. As a commander he has probably 
achieved more than any other man by destroying two thousand 
of his enemies with only the loss of twenty men. But the merit 
rests solely with the General, for you, as intelligent men, will 
agree that there could be no honor reaped by troops who never 
were even seen by their enemies.' " 2 

Of the great glory of the American continent, Cobden thought 
as rapturously as any boaster in the land. We have previously 
quoted his expression about Niagara being the sublimity of mo- 
tion, and here is the account of his first visit to the incomparable 

1 The reader will remember, as Cobden's listeners did, that Washington was 
occupied by British forces in 1814. 

2 To F. Cobden, from Boston, July 5, 1835. Cobden's reference is to the engage- 
ment of the 8th of January, 1815, when Andrew Jackson at New Orleans repulsed 
the British forces under Sir Edward Pakenham. The Americans mowed the 
enemy down from behind high works. The Bi'itish loss was 700 killed, 1400 
wounded, and 500 prisoners ; Jackson's loss, eight killed, and thirteen wounded. 
As it happened, the two countries were no longer at war at the moment, for peace 
had been signed at Ghent a fortnight before (Dec. 24, 1814). General Pakenham, 
who was Wellington's brother-in-law, fell while bravely rallyir 
under a murderous fire. 




24 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835- 

Falls. " From Chippewa village, the smoke (as it appears to be) 
rising from the cataract is visible. There was not such a volume 
of mist as I had expected, and the noise was not great. I 
reached the Pavilion Hotel near the falls at one o'clock. I 
immediately went to see this greatest of natural wonders alone. 
I jealously guarded my eyes from wandering until I found my- 
self on the Table Rock. Thank God that has bestowed on me 
health, time, and means for reaching this spot, and the spirit to 
kindle at the spectacle before me ! The Horse-shoe is the all- 
absorbing portion of the scene from this point ; the feathery 
graceful effect of the water as it tumbles in broken and irregu- 
lar channels over the edge of the rock has not been properly 
described. ISTor has the effect of the rapids above the shoot, seen 
from this point, as they come surging, lashing, and hissing in 
apparent agony at the terrific destiny before them. This rapid 
above the falls might be called a rush of the waters preparatory 
to their taking their awful leap. The water is thrown over an 
irregular ledge, but in falling it completely hides the face of the 
perpendicular rock down which it falls. Instead of an even 
sheet of glassy water, it falls in light and graceful festoons of 
foaming, nay almost vapory fluid, possessing just enough con- 
sistency to descend in various-sized and hardly distinguishable 
streams, whilst here and there one of these foaming volumes en- 
counters a projecting rock in its descent, which forces it back 
in heavy spray into the still descending torrent above ; thus 
giving indescribable beauty and variety to the scene. In the 
afternoon I crossed the river below the falls, and visited Goat's 
Island. At the foot of the staircase there is a view of the 
American Fall at a point of rock near the bottom of the cascade, 
terrific beyond conception, and totally opposite to the effect of 
the Horse-shoe Fall as seen from Table Eock. I ascended the 
stairs and passed over the bridge to Goat's Island. The view 
from the platform overhanging the Horse-shoe Fall, when you 
look right down into the abyss, and are standing immediately 
over the descending water, is horrible. I do not think people 
would take any pleasure in being placed in this fearful position, 
unless others were looking on, or unless for the vain gratification 
of talking about it. In the evening I again looked at the Horse- 
shoe Fall from Table Eock until dark — oh, for an English twi- 
light ! The effect of this fall is improved by the water which 
flows over the ledge being of very different depths, from two to 
twenty feet, which of course causes the water to flow more or 
less in a mass, so that in one part it descends nearly half-way in 
a blue, unbroken sheet, whilst not far off it is scattered into the 
whitest foam almost as soon as it has passed the edge of the 
rock. The water for several hundred yards below the fall is as 



Mt. 31.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 25 

white as drift snow — not a mere white froth, but wherever it is 
disturbed it shows nothing but a white milk-like effect unlike 
any water I ever saw." 1 

***** 

" In the morning I went in a coach with Messrs. Cunningham 
and Church, and Henry, to see the whirlpool three miles down 
the stream. I was disappointed ; I don't know if it was that the 
all-absorbing influence of the falls prevented my taking any in- 
terest in other scenes. After dinner, I descended to view the 
Horse-shoe Fall from behind the curtain of water ; the stunning 
noise and the heavy beating of the water render this a severe 
adventure, but there is- no danger. The effect of the sound is 
that of. the most terrific thunder. There is very little effect for 
the eye. We went to view the burning well, which would 
certainly light a town with gas. Putting a tub over the well 
produces a complete gasometer. A tree was thrown into the 
rapid, but the effect is not great, it dropped immediately it passed 
the ledge more perpendicularly than the cascade, and so disap- 
peared. In the balcony looking over the falls there was a stupid- 
looking man, telling a stupid story, about a stupid lord. It as- 
sured me that I was amongst my own countrymen again. The 
negro barber here is a runaway black from Virginia. 

"From Table Rock we saw a rainbow which formed nearly a 
complete circle. We crossed again to the American side with 
Mr. Cunningham, and took a bath, for there is not one on the 
Canada side. The ferryman told us of a gentleman who swam 
over three times. I felt less disposed than ever to quit this spot, 
so full of ever-increasing attraction. Were I an American, I 
would here strive to build me a summer residence. In the 
evening there were drunken people about. I have seen more 
intoxicated persons at this first Canada town, than in any place 
in the States. The view from Table Rock was rather obscured 
by the mist. At dinner a crowded table was wholly vacated in 
twenty minutes ! Think of sixty persons at an English watering- 
place dining and leaving the table in twenty minutes ! I took 
a last and reluctant leave of this greatest of all nature's works." 1 

Cobclen summed up his impressions in a long letter to his 
brother at Manchester : — 

" I am thus far on my way back again to New York, which 
city I expect to reach on the 8th inst., after completing a tour 
through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburg, Lake 
Erie to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Albany (via Auburn, Utica, Sche- 
nectady) and the Connecticut valley to Boston, and Lowell, etc., 
to-morrow. On my return to New York, I purpose giving two 

1 To F. 0., June 21, 1835. 2 June 22, 1835. 



26 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835. 

clays to the Hudson river, going up to Albany one day, and re- 
turning the next ; after which I shall have two or three, days for 
the purpose of taking leave of my good friends in New York, 
previously to going on board the Britannia on the 16th. My 
journey may be called a real pleasure trip, for without an excep- 
tion or interruption of any kind I have enjoyed every minute of 
the too, too short time allowed me for seeing this truly magnifi- 
cent country. No one has yet done justice to the splendid 
scenery of America. Her lakes, rivers, forests, and above all 
her cataracts are peculiarly her own, and when I think of their 
superiority to all that we own in the Old World, and, still more, 
when I recollect that, by a mysterious ordinance of their Creator, 
these were hid from 'learned ken' till modern times, I fell into 
the fanciful belief that the Western continent was brought forth 
at a second birth, and intended by nature as a more perfect speci- 
men of her handiwork. But how in the name of breeding must 
we account for the degeneracy of the human form in this other- 
wise mammoth-producing soil ? The men are but sorry descend- 
ants from the noble race that begot their ancestors ; and as for 
the women ! My eyes have not found one resting-place that 
deserves to be called a wholesome, blooming, pretty woman since 
I have been here. One fourth part of the women look as if they 
had just recovered from a fit of the jaundice, another quarter 
would in England be termed in a state of decided consumption, 
and the remainder are fitly likened to our fashionable women 
when haggard and jaded with the dissipation of a London season. 
There, haven't I out-trolloped Mrs. Trollope, and overhauled even 
Basil Hall ? 

" But leaving the physique for the morale. My estimate of 
American character has improved, contrary to my expectations, 
by this visit. Great as was my previous esteem for the qualities 
of this people, I find myself in love with their intelligence, their 
sincerity, and the decorous self-respect that actuates all classes. 
The very genius of activity seems to have found its fit abode in 
the souls of this restless and energetic race. They have not, 't is 
true, the force of Englishmen in personal weight or strength, but 
they have compensated for this deficiency by quickening the mo- 
mentum of their enterprises. All is in favor of celerity of action 
and the saving of time. Speed, speed, speed, is the motto that is 
stamped in the form of their ships and steamboats, in the breed 
of their horses, and the light construction of their wagons and 
carts : and in the ten thousand contrivances that are met with 
here, whether for the abridging of the labor of months or minutes, 
whether a high-pressure engine or a patent boot-jack. All is done 
in pursuit of one common object, the economy of time. We like 
to speculate upon the future, and I have sometimes tried to con- 



Mt. 81.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 27 

jecture what the industry and ingenuity and activity of that 
future people of New Holland, or of some other at present 
unknown continent, will amount to, which shall surpass and 
supersede the Yankees in the career of improvements, as~effectu- 
ally as these have done the natives of the Old World. They 
must be a race that will be able to dispense with food and sleep 
altogether, for the Americans have certainly discovered the 
minimum of time that is required for the services of their beds 
and boards. Their mechanical engines must work miracles 'till 
panting time toils after them in vain.' In fact I regard it as 
almost as improbable for another community to rival the popula- 
tion of these States in prosperity, as for an individual to surpass 

our indefatigable friend and self-sacrificed free-born slave, K , 

in the race of hard-earned fortune. You know I predicted when 
leaving England for this continent, that I should not find it 
sufficiently to my taste to relish a sojourn here for life. My feel- 
ings in this respect are quite altered. I know of no reasonable 
ground for an aversion to this country, and none but unreasonable 
minds could fail to be as happy here as in England, provided 
friendly attachments did not draw them to the Old country. My 
own predilection is rather in favor of Washington as a residence. 
Baltimore is also, I should imagine, a pleasant town. These two 
are now by means of the railroad almost identical. By-the-bye, 
when running through those towns on my way to the west, and 
in the design of extending my journey as far as Montreal, which 
I have since found to be impracticable, unfortunately I resisted 
all kind invitations to remain even for the* purpose of being intro- 
duced to old Hickory, which would have delayed me only a day. 
I have since regretted this very much." 1 

Cobden arrived in England in the middle of August, after an 
uneventful voyage, in which he found no better way of amusing 
himself than by analyzing the character of his fellow-passengers, 
and reducing them to types. Early in life his eager curiosity had 
been attracted by the doctrines of phrenology, and however crude 
the pretensions of phrenology may now appear, it will always 
deserve a certain measure of historic respect as being the first 
attempt to popularize the study of character by system, and the 
arrangement of men's faculty and disposition in classes. To 
accept phrenology to-day would stamp a man as unscientific, but 
to accept it in 1835 was a good sign of mentalactivity. Cobden's 
portraits of his shipmates, if they are not so deep-reaching as La 
Bruyere, serve to illustrate his habit of watching the ways of 
men, of studying the differences among them, and of judging 
them with the kindly neutrality of the humorist or the naturalist. 

1 To F. G., July 5, 1835. From Boston. 



28 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

How useful this habit became to the leader of a political agitation, 
in which patient and versatile handling of different characters is 
so important a gift, we shall soon see. 

After his return from America, Cobden remained at home for 
fifteen months, from the summer of 1835 to the autumn of 1836. 
He began by making up all arrears of business, and discussing 
new projects with his partners. But public affairs drew him with 
irresistible attraction. It was probably in this interval that he 
made his first public speech. The object of the meeting, which 
was small and unimportant, was to further the demand of a cor- 
poration for Manchester. Cobden was diffident, and unwilling to 
speak. He was at length induced to rise, but his speech is 
described as a signal failure. "He was nervous," says the 
chronicler, " confused, and in fact practically broke down, and 
the chairman had to apologize for him." The first occasion on 
which his name appears in the newspapers is the announcement 
that he was chosen to be on the committee of the newly estab- 
lished Athenaeum at Manchester, and he modestly seconded a 
resolution at the meeting. 1 The important piece of work of this 
date was the pamphlet on Russia, which was published in the 
summer of 1836. 2 The earlier pamphlet, England, Ireland, and 
America, had been published, as I have already mentioned, in the 
spring of 1835, and within twelve months had gone through three 
editions, at what we should now consider the high price of three 
shillings and sixpence ; it had in April, 1836, reached a fifth 
edition at sixpence. The newspapers had been liberal in its 
praise, and. its author had been described in the sonorous style of 
the conventional leading article as a man of a liberal and compre- 
hensive mind, an acute and original thinker, a clear and interesting- 
writer, "and in the best because not an exclusive sense of the 
term — a true patriot." 3 Mr. Eidgway, the publisher, informed 
Cobden that nobody ought to print a pamphlet unless lie had 
some other object in view, besides publication. " I have another 

1 Oct. 1, 1835. 

2 The original advertisement is as follows: — " On Monday, July 25, will be pub- 
lished, price 8d., Russia, by a Manchester Manufacturer, author of England, Ireland, 
and America. Contents — 1. Russia, Turkey, and England. 2. Poland, Russia, 
and England. 3. The Balance of Power. 4. Protection of Commerce. . . . This 
is not a party pamphlet, nor will Russia be found, as the title might seem to imply, 
to be exclusively the subject of inquiry in the following pages." 

3 Manchester Guardian, May 23, 1835. The London Times, May 5, 1836, de- 
scribes the pamphlet as having "some sound views of the true foreign policy of 
England, and some just and forcible reflections on the causes which keep us in the 
rear of improvement," &c. 

The Manchester Guardian — we may notice as a point in that important matter, 
the history of the periodical press — was from Jan. 1, 1830, to Sept. 15, 1836, pub- 
lished once a week, and sold for sevenpence. After the duty on paper was reduced 
(Sept. 15, 1836), it was published twice a week, and its price brought down to 
fourpence. 



Mt. 31-32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 29 

object," Cobden adds, "in distant and dim perspective." 1 We 
may assume that, when he said this, he was thinking, with natural 
ambition, of the pedestal from which a place in Parliament 
enables a man to address his audience. These two pieces are im- 
portant enough in Cobden's history to deserve a chapter of their 
own, but it will be convenient before dealing with them to 
complete the travels which followed the publication of the sec- 
ond of them. Shortly afterwards the strain of so many interests 
affected Cobden's health. He had suffered severely from an illness 
at the end of the previous year, and the doctors counselled a 
winter abroad. As the business was in good order, and the main- 
spring, to use Cobden's own figure in the matter, was not necessary 
until the following spring, he resolved to set forth eastward. On 
the 22d of October he sailed from Plymouth. He arrived in 
Falmouth harbor, on his return, on the 21st of April, 1837. 

The ship touched at Lisbon and Cadiz, and Cobden wrote lively 
accounts to his friends at home of all that he saw. His descrip- 
tion of Cadiz was stopped short by recollecting Byron's famous 
account, and the only subject on which he permitted himself to 
expatiate repeatedly and at length was the beauty of the ladies 
and their drfess. "At Cadiz too," he writes to his partner at Sab- 
den, "you may see the loveliest female costume in the world — 
the Spanish mantilla ! All the head-dresses in Christendom must 
yield the palm to this. It is, as you may see in the little clay 
figures of Spanish ladies which are sold in England, a veil and 
mantle combined, which falls from a high comb at the back of 
the top of the head, down to the elbow in front, and just below 
the shoulders behind. A fan, which is universally carried, is 
twirled and brandished about, with an air quite murderous to the 
hearts of sensitive bachelors. Black silk is the national costume, 
and thus these sable beauties are always seen in the streets, or at 
the promenade. Judge of the climate, judge of the streets, and of 
the atmosphere of their cities, where all the ladies appear in public 
in full dress ! Sorry, however, am I to tell you that the demon in- 
novation is making war upon the mantilla, in the shape of foreign 
fashions — French bonnets are beginning to usurp the throne of 
the black mantilla. Eeformer as I am, I would fain be a conserva- 
tive of that ancient and venerable institution, the mantilla. The 
French will have much to answer for, if they supersede with their 
frippery and finery this beautiful mode." 2 

Now, as in the busiest days of his life, Cobden was a volumi- 
nous and untiring letter-writer. In the hottest time of the agita- 
tion against the Corn Laws, he no sooner flung off his overcoat 
on reaching the inn after a long journey or a boisterous meeting, 

1 To F. Cobden, March 31, 1835. 

2 To Mr. Foster, from Alexandria, Nov. 28, 1836. 



30 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836. 

than he called for pen and ink, and sat down to write letters of 
argument, remonstrance, persuasion, direction. And when, as 
now, he was travelling for relaxation, the same impulse was irre- 
sistibly strong upon him, the same expansive desire to communi- 
cate to others his impressions, ideas, and experiences. " I am 
writing this/' he says on one occasion, " whilst sailing doM 7 n the 
Nile on my return to Alexandria, and it is penned upon no better 
desk than my knees, while sitting cross-legged upon my mattress, 
in the cabin of a boat not high enough in the roof to allow me 
even to stand." 1 No physical inconvenience and no need of re- 
pose ever dulled his willingness either to hear or to speak. The 
biographer's only embarrassment is difficulty of selection from 
superabundant material. Journals and letters alike show the 
same man, of quick observation, gay spirits, and a disposition 
that, on its serious side, was energetically reflective rather than 
contemplative. I wish that I could reproduce his journals, but 
they are too copious for the limits of my space ; and the state- 
ments of commercial fact which they contain are no longer true, 
while the currents of trade which Cobden took such pains to 
trace out, have long since shifted their direction. He ^vas an 
eager and incessant questioner, and yet his journals" show a man 
who is acquiring knowledge, not with the elaborate conscientious- 
ness of a set purpose, but with the ease of natural and spontane- 
ous interest. There is no overdone earnestness ; life is not crushed 
out of us by the sledge-hammer of the statistical bore ; there is the 
charm of disengagement, and the faculty of disengagement is one 
of the secrets of the most effective kind of character. Elaborate 
inquiries as to imports and exports do not prevent him from being 
well pleased to go ashore at Tenos, "to amuse ourselves for a day 
with leaping, throwing, and jumping." As the serious interests 
of his journey — the commercial and political circumstances of 
Egypt, Greece, and Turkey — are no longer in the same case, it 
can hardly be worth while to transcribe his account of them. 

The following extracts from his letters to his sisters will serve 
to show his route : — 

Gibraltar, 11 Nov., 1836. — "Before us arose the towering and 
impregnable fortress ; on every side land was distinctly visible ; 
my first inquiry was, Where is the coast of Africa ? It was a 
natural curiosity. A quarter of the globe where white men's feet 
have but partially trod, whose sandy plains and mountains are 
unknown, and where imagination may revel in unreal creations 
of the terrible, was for the first time presented to my view. Can 
you doubt that the thought which arose in my mind for a time 
absorbed all other reflections ? Yet all I could see was the dark 

1 To Charles Cobden, Jan 8, 1837. 



Et. 32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 31 

sable outline of the coast of Barbary, a congenial shroud for the 
gloomy scene of pagan woes and Christian crimes that have been 
enacted in the regions bej^ond ! 

" The two particulars," he continued, " which strike most 
strongly the eye of the visitor who has passed from Spain and 
Portugal to this place, are the bustling activity of Gibraltar, as 
contrasted with the deserted condition of Lisbon and Cadiz, and 
the variety of the costumes and characters which suddenly offer 
themselves to his notice. To see both to advantage, it is neces- 
sary to visit the open square opposite to the Exchange, where the 
auctions and other business draw a concourse of all the inhabi- 
tants and sojourners in this rocky Babel. 

" Fortunately our hotel opens immediately upon this lively 
scene, and I have spent hours in surveying from above the varie- 
gated lines of the motley multitude below. By far the'most dig- 
nified and interesting figure is the Moor, who, with his turban, 
rich yellow slippers, ample flowing robes, and bare legs, presents 
a picturesque figure which is admirably contrasted with that of a 
Catalonian, who — with a red cap, which depends from a black 
band that encircles his head, like a long bag, down nearly to his 
waist, pantaloons which are braced up to his armpits, and short 
round jacket — may be seen jostling with the idle smuggler, with 
his leather embroidered leggings, his breeches of velvet adorned 
with side rows of bright basket buttons, his sash, embroidered 
jacket, and grotesque conical hat; whose life is a romance and 
probably a tragedy, and every one of whose gestures is viewed 
with interest as the by-play of one who by turns acts the part of 
a contrabandista, a bandit, or an assassin. Next is the Jew, who 
is here beheld in the most abject guise of his despised class : a 
rude mantle of the coarsest blanketing covers his crouching figure, 
bent by the severe toil with which he here earns a miserable sub- 
sistence ; he is waiting with a patient and leaning aspect the call 
of some purchaser. His bare legs and uncovered head and the 
ropes indicative of his laborious calling, which are probably fast- 
ened loosely about his waist, altogether give him the appearance 
of one who has been condemned to a life of penance for the expia- 
tion of some heinous crimes: — alas, he is only the personification 
of the fate of his tribe ! But I could not find space to portray 
the minor features of the scene before me. Here are English, 
French, Spanish, Italian, Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, all 
bawling and jostling each other, some buying, others selling or 
bartering, whilst the fierce competition for profit is maintained 
by a mingled din of the Spanish, Arabic, Lingua Franca, and 
English tongues. This is a scene only to be viewed in Gibraltar, 
and it is worthy of the pains of a pilgrimage from afar to be- 
hold it." 



32 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836. 

Gibraltar, 11 Nov., 1836. — "A trip was made by a party of 
five of us on horseback to a convent fifteen miles off. * The road 
lies through a cork wood, and it is a favorite excursion from the 
garrison. It was delightful, after seeing nothing but barren rocks, 
and being confined to the limits of this fortress — which is seven 
miles in circumference — to find ourselves galloping through 
woods where hundreds of pathways allowed one unlimited range, 
and where thousands of beautiful trees and plants peculiar to this 
part arrested our attention. The doctor 1 was in a botanical mood 
at once, and we all gathered about to learn from him the names 
and properties of such plants as were to us new acquaintances. 
After filling our pockets with seeds and specimens, we pursued 
our journey to the convent, which is a dilapidated building, in 
which we found only one solitary monk. A large courtyard, 
in which "were two or three gaunt-looking dogs, who from their 
manners appeared unused to receive visitors ; extensive stables, 
in which we found only the foals of an ass, in place of a score of 
horses ; a belfry without ropes ; vast kitchens, but no fire ; and 
spacious corridors, dormitories, and refectories, in which I could 
not discover a vestige of furniture, revealed a picture of desolation 
and loneliness. We walked into the gardens and found oranges 
ripening, and the fig-tree, pomegranate, sago- palm, olives, and 
grape-vines flourishing amidst weeds that were almost impervious 
to our feet. The country around was wild, and harmonized with 
the ruined and abandoned fortunes of the convent. After par- 
taking of some brown bread, eggs, and chestnuts, from the hands 
of the monk, and after enlivening his solitary cloisters with the 
unwonted echoes of our merriment, in which we found our poor 
old host willing to indulge, we left him, and returned through the 
cork wood to our quarters here." 

Alexandria, 30 Nov., 1836. — " In consequence of the arrival of 
the governor, we were greeted with much noise and rejoicing by 
the good folks of Malta. The town was illuminated, bands of 
singers paraded the streets, the opera was thrown open, and 
all was given up to fun and revelry. We saw all that we could 
of the proceedings, and heard during the night more than we 
could have wished, considering that we wanted a quiet sleep. 
However, it was necessary for us to be up betimes in the morn- 
ing, to make some preparations for our journey in Egypt. The 
good doctor was in a great bustle, purchasing the biscuits, brandy, 
and other little commodities ; it was necessary also that we should 
engage a trusty servant at Malta, to accompany us through the 
vo3^age. Our friends recommended a man named Eosario Villa, 
who had made the excursion up the hill several times with Eng- 

1 Dr. Wilson, his travelling companion, whose acquaintance he had first made 
in his voyage home from the United States. 



Mi. 32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 33 

lish tourists — spoke Arabic, English, and Italian, and knew the 
whole of Egypt and Syria thoroughly. Rosario was introduced 
to us. Now, I ask you, does not the name at once tell you that 
he was a smart elegant young fellow, with a handsome face, good 
figure, and an insinuating address ? Such is the idea which you 
will naturally have formed of a Maltese named Eosario Villa. 
Stop a moment till I have described him. He is a little elderly 
man with a body as dried and shrivelled as a reindeer's tongue, 
only not so fresh-colored — for his face is of the hue of the inside 
of tanned shoe4eather, but wrinkled over like a New Zealand 
mummy ; a low forehead, a mouth made of two narrow strips of 
skin drawn back nearly to the ear over white teeth, and with his 
hair cut close, but leaving a little fringe of stragglers round the 
front — such is the picture of Rosario! We had no time to be 
fastidious, and his character being unquestionable, we engaged 
him at once, and in two hours he had made all his worldly 
arrangements and was on the way at our side to the steamboat. 
Here he was met by his friends and acquaintances, who took 
leave of him with many embraces, and I could not doubt that the 
soul was good which drew the kisses at his parting to such a 
body! 

"It was five o'clock in the evening and the sun was beginning 
to prepare to leave this latitude for your western lands, when we 
slipped out of the boat, upon the: quay of Alexandria. A scene 
followed which I must' endeavor to- "describe. Our luggage and 
that of an Irish friend was brought from the boat and deposited 
on a kind of platform immediately in front of a shed, which is 
ennobled by the name of Custom-House. Upon a bench, a little 
raised, sat a fat little Turk with a broad square face, whose fat 
cheeks hung down in pendulous masses on each side of his mouth, 
after the fashion of the English mastiff dog shown as a specimen 
in the Zoological Gardens. Our servant Rosario has endeavored 
to hire a camel to put our luggage upon, but there is none at 
hand. A crowd of Arab porters has gathered about, offering their 
services, and each is talking at the top of his voice ; after due 
bargaining, or rather jostling, haggling, and gesticulating, the 
agreement is concluded, and a dozen of the shortest of the ham- 
mals or porters have proceeded to adjust their several portions of 
the luggage, when whack, crack, thwack, a terrible rout is here ! 

" The little fat Turk whom I verily believe to have been dream- 
ing as he sat so tranquilly smoking his long pipe, whose glowing 
ashes had the moment before attracted my eye by its glare in the 
advancing twilight, has caused this panic. Throwing aside his 
chibouque, and grasping a short cane, without troubling himself 
to speak a word, he has rushed with the suddenness of inspiration 
into the midst of the screaming and litigious gang, and plying his 

8 



34 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836. 

baton right and left over the shoulders, head, and arms, dealing 
out an extra share of chastisement upon those who, from having 
been loaded with our chattels, could not so easily escape his fury, 
until he has cleared the ground of every turbaned rogue of them, 
and left us standing amidst our scattered and disordered trunks, 
bags, and portmanteaus, not. knowing what was to follow. I am 
soon able, however, to guess what is at the bottom the meaning 
of this unexpected apparition of the little dignitary, and the sud- 
den Hegira of our porters ; for after calmly resuming his pipe, 
and giving it two or three inspirations to reanimate the decaying 
embers, he takes Eosario on one side and whispers a few words 
in his ear, the import of which you may suppose is that the luggage 
must all go to the custom-house, but to save us that trouble he 
will allow us in consideration of some backshish (or a present of 
money) to take them with us. 

" This little difficulty being got over, our luggage and ourselves 
are under weigh through the dark streets of Alexandria, whose 
houses appear to have rudely turned their back premises to the 
front, for you can see nothing but blank walls without windows 
or doors. The English hotel lay at some distance, and we had 
occasion to pass through one of the gates of the town, where we 
were met by a guard, a fellow in a white turban, who laid violent 
hands upon the leader of our party, who happened to be the good 
doctor himself, and arrested^ out' further progress under some pre- 
tence which I could not Comprehend, but X distinctly again caught 
the sound of the word backshish. We hesitated whether we should 
give the rascal a shilling or a good beating ; — the doctor had 
raised his heavy umbrella in favor of the latter alternative, when 
my vote, which you know is always in favor of peace, decided it 
in behalf of a fee, to the extent of five piastres, and with this sub- 
sidy to the Pacha's representative we departed amicably. On the 
way through the narrow streets of Alexandria w T e met many 
Turks, whose attendants bore small lamps of paper or gauze, with 
which they always politely showed us our road. I begin to think 
that these are well-bred barbarians, after all my abuse of them 
and their religion ! 

" Mrs. Hume's hotel is a large detached building situated a long 
distance from the Turkish quarter, and surrounded by date-trees 
of luxuriant growth. I ran out and wandered here by moonlight 
the very night of my arrival. The scene was indeed delicious 
after a tedious and unpleasant voyage. I thought of you all, and 
only wished for one of you at least to share my exciting enjoy- 
ment. Well has it been said that 'happiness was bom a twin, and 
you, my dear M., somehow or other seem naturally associated with 
me in my ideal pleasures. I fancied that you were with me, and 
_ that we were equally happy. 



Mi. 32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 35 

" When I arose in the morning, I found that it was the season 
for gathering the dates. The Arabs were swinging about in the 
branches of this elegant tree by means of ropes, and gathering in 
large baskets the ripe fruit, which hung in luxuriant bunches. I 
am an admirer of the useful, you know, but how much more do 
I love the combination of utility and elegance ! On the date-tree 
you find both in perfection. There is the handsomest tree in the 
world, bearing the sole fruit which afforded nourishment to the 
wandering children of the desert, and a charming fruit is the date. 
I have subscribed a trifle to the Turk who rents this plantation, 
for the privilege of walking through it, whenever I please, and 
helping myself freely to its produce. There are very few curiosi- 
ties to detain the traveller in Alexandria. Pompey's Pillar, and 
Cleopatra's Needle, and the catacombs, and a few other half-buried 
ruins, are all that now remains to attest the ancient splendor of a 
city which once contained 4000 baths, and counted a population 
of 600,000 souls. These curious fragments of departed grandeur 
have been often described, and are so little intrinsically interesting, 
that I shall say nothing about them. 

"The monuments called Cleopatra's Needles are enormous 
masses of granite. One only stands, the other was thrown down 
and half buried in fche sand in an attempt to remove it to England. 
Mark the folly and injustice of carrying these remains from the 
site where they were originally placed, and from amidst the asso- 
ciations which gave them all their interest, to London or Paris, 
where they become merely objects of vulgar wonderment, and be- 
sides are subjected to the destroying effects of our humid climate. 
It is to be hoped that good taste, or at least the feelings of economy 
which now pervade our rulers' minds, will prevent this vestige of 
the days of the Pharaohs from being removed. 1 

" I dined with Mr. Muir at twelve o'clock. His Greek servant, 
a man of remarkable elegance and gracefulness, quiet, grave, and 

1 Theophile Gautier makes the Paris obelisk muse in Cobden's sense : — 

Sur cette place je m'ennuie, 
Obelisque depareille ; 
Neige, givre, bruine, et pluie 
Glacent mon flanc deja rouille ; 

Et ma vieille aiguille, rougie 
Aux fournaises d'un ciel de feu, 
Prend des paleurs de nostalgie 
Dans cet air qui n'est jamais bleu. 

La sentinelle granitique, 
Gardienne des enormites, 
Se dresse entre un faux temple antique 
Et la chambre des deputes. 
And so forth. 



36 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836. 

full of dignity at every gesture. What a power such grace has over 
my mind ! " 1 

Cairo, Dec. 20, 1836. — "I slept tolerably well after having 
been for the first time made acquainted with my old torment, the 
fleas. You will wonder when I tell you that use has since made 
me almost indifferent to such trifles. The Arab sailors who formed 
our crew were miserable wretches, half clothed in dirty rags, and 
two of them were suffering from ophthalmia. I had heard much 
of the character of the degraded population of Egypt, and was told 
by those who knew no better, that severity and harshness were the 
only methods of making them work. My idea is, you know, that 
rewards and not punishments are the most effectual means of 
stimulating men, and so it proved. The backshish kept the boat 
going, when stripes would have only made it stand. At Atfeh we 
paid the reis or captain his five dollars, and gave his men a few 
piastres, and I parted with my usual good opinion of human nature. 

" Scarcely had we reached the shore, when we were followed by 
the reis, bringing three bad pieces of money which he accused the 
good doctor, the cashier, of having paid him. It was clearly an 
imposition, and Rosario told us we should encounter similar con- 
duct at every stage. We changed the money, resolving to be on 
our guard in future. My ideas of human nature were less exalted 
for a minute and a half than usual. 

" To proceed from Atfeh to Cairo, a distance of 150 miles by the 
Nile, it was necessary to embark on board a larger boat, but here we 
found that the ladies, who had just preceded us, had taken all the 
good boats. We learnt, however, that a new and commodious boat 
was lying at the town of Fooah on the opposite side of the river, 
rather higher up the stream, and we took a ferry, and carried our 
luggage over, accompanied by the Vice-Consul, a little Italian, who, 
politely as we thought, agreed to bargain for us. The boat with 
twelve men was hired for 500 piastres, or hi., and it was agreed 
that we should start as soon as our luggage was on board. In the 
mean time I went into a cotton-mill in the neighborhood, which 
presented a miserable appearance. Upon leaving, I gave backshish 
to one of the managers, who followed me immediately with a bad 
piece of money, which he accused me of having paid him. I 
threatened to shoot him, or something equally improbable, and 
thus escaped this attempt. Our Vice-Consul now left us, and we 
proposed to start, but the owner of the boat very coolly ordered a 
cargo of wood to be laid alongside, which he was determined to 
take along with its owner to Cairo. As this would have left no 
room for Rosario or Hussein for sleeping, we resisted, and all began 
to grow out of humor. We threw the wood out of the boat, and 

1 Journal. 



.ffir. 32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 37 

drove the porters, who were attempting to load, ashore. A fresh 
difficulty now arose. The owner of the boat refused to let her 
start until the next day, and very soon all the crew, reis and all, 
disappeared. My opinion of humanity sank several degrees. It 
now grew towards evening. We were moored alongside of the 
town of Fooah, and just opposite to a khan or coffee-house, in the 
balcony of which sat the owner of the boat, smoking his long pipe 
and surrounded by a party of lazy rascals like himself, who were 
all singing and laughing, probably amused at our dilemma. Much 
as it is against my principles, I now resorted to brute force. 1 
took the pistols out of the portmanteau where Fred had placed 
them loaded and primed, but not without secret resolves that I 
would not injure any one. The doctor also arrived, and we went 
ashore to find the governor of the town, intending to make a com- 
plaint. It was dark, and we had a difficulty in finding out that 
the principal officer of Fooah was from home, but on inquiry for 
his deputy, we were told that the owner of the boat against whom 
we complained, was the man himself! Thus the judge and crimi- 
nal were one person, which was certainly against our cause. How- 
ever, we proceeded straight to the khan, and by means of Eosario 
for an interpreter, we made the vice-governor understand that he 
was a rascal, and threatened to have him punished by our friend 
the Pacha. He protested that he only acted for the safety of our- 
selves ; that the Vice-Consul had entrusted us to his charge as 
travellers of the first .consideration; that the sky predicted a 
storm ; and that he could not, out of regard for such valuable lives, 
suffer us to go out that night. So finding there was no help for 
our difficulties but in patience and submission, we went on board, 
laughed at ourselves, supped, and slept." 

"In the morning (Sunday, December 4th) we started with a 
favorable wind up the Mle. On looking round, however, we found 
that we had only six sailors instead of twelve, and we now learnt 
that this, was the reason why the boat could not venture out at 
night. We found also from our man Hussein, that the Vice- 
Consul had received a handsome backshish out of the 51. we 
were to pay for the boat. Altogether my opinion of the Egyptians 
received a smart shock — they were for an hour or so down at 
zero. The aspect of the scenery of the Nile at and above Fooah, 
though flat, was very interesting to us at first. The minarets in 
the distance, the palms on the banks, the brilliant foliage, all gave 
it a pleasant effect to a stranger to such scenes. The river, which 
is of a yellow-red complexion, is here of the width of the Thames 
at London." 

"This day (December 16th) is an era in my travels. I went 
with Captain E. and Mr. Hill to see the Pyramids. They disap- 
point the visitor until he gets close to them. My first feelings, 



38 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836. 

along with a due sense of astonishment, were those of vexation at 
the enormous sum of ingenious labor which here was wasted. 
Six millions of tons of stone, all shaped and fitted with skill, are 
here piled in a useless form. The third of this weight of material 
and less than a tenth part of the labor sufficed to construct the 
most useful public work in England — the Plymouth Breakwater." 1 

Cairo, December 20th, 1836. — "Last evening was the interest- 
ing time appointed for an interview with no less a personage than 
Mehemet Ali, the Pacha of Egypt. Our Consul, Colonel C., 2 had 
the day before waited upon this celebrated person, to say that he 
wished to present some British travellers to his Highness, and 
he appointed the following evening at six o'clock, which is his 
usual hour of receiving visitors during the fast of Ramadan. At 
the appointed hour* we assembled, to the number of six indi- 
viduals, at the house of Colonel C, and from thence we immedi- 
ately proceeded to the palace, which is in the citadel, and about 
half an hour's ride from the Consul's. 

" Our way lay through the most crowded part of the town. It 
was quite dark, but being at the season of the Eamadan (the 
Mahometan Lent) when Turks fast and abstain from business 
during the day, but feast and illuminate their bazaars and public 
buildings during the night, we found the streets lighted up, and 
all the population apparently just beginning the day's occupations. 
. . . Away we went through streets and bazaars, some of which 
were less than eight feet wide, and all of them being crowded with 
Turks, Arabs, camels, horses, and donkeys. All, however, made 
way at the approach of the janissary and the uplifted grate of fire, 
both of which are signs of the rank of the persons who followed. 
Besides, to do justice even to Turks, I must add that I never saw 
a people less disposed to quarrel with you about trifles than the 
population of Cairo. You may run over them, or pummel them 
with your feet, as you squeeze them almost to death against the 
wall, and they only seem astonished that you give yourself any 
concern afterwards, to know if they be still in the land of the 
living. As for the foot of an ass or dromedary, if it be placed 
gently on their toes, and only withdrawn in time for them to light 
their pipe or say their prayers, which are the only avocations they 
follow, why, they say nothing about such trifles. 

" As we proceeded along the streets, or rather alleys, of this 
singular city, it was curious to observe the doings of the good 
Mussulmans, who had just an hour before been released from the 
observance of the severe ordinance of the prophet. Some were 
busy cooking their savory stews over little charcoal fires ; here 

1 Journal. 

2 " A martinet taken from the regimental mess, to watch and regulate the commer- 
cial intercourse of a trading people with a merchant pacha." — Journal. 



JIt.32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 39 

you might see a party seated round a dish, into which every indi- 
vidual was actively thrusting his fist ; and occasionally we passed 
a public fountain, around the doors and windows of which crowds 
of half-famished true believers were pressing, eager to quench 
their thirst, probably for the first time since sunrise. Some, who 
no doubt had already satisfied the more pressing calls of nature, 
were seated round a company of musicians, and listening with 
becoming gravity to strains of barbarous music, whilst in another 
place a crowd of turbans had gathered about a juggler, who was 
exercising the credulity of the faithful by his magical deceptions. 
By far the greater portion, however, of those we passed were sit- 
ting cross-legged, enjoying the everlasting pipe, and so intent 
were they upon the occupation that they scarcely deigned to cast 
a glance at us as we passed. 

"As we approached nearer to the citadel, the scene changed. 
We now met numbers of military of all ranks, who were issuing 
from the head-quarters, some accoutred for the night watch, 
others dressed in splendid suits and mounted upon spirited horses. 
I saw some officers in the Mameluke costume, which you may see 
pictured in old books of travel in this country. Contrasted with 
these was the dress of the private troops who led the way, and 
whose white cotton garments, close jacket, and musket with 
bayonet, gave them a half European aspect. Here too we found 
ourselves surrounded by numerous horsemen, who like ourselves 
were proceeding at this, his customary hour of levee, to pay their 
respects to the Pacha. At length we entered the gates of the 
citadel, and immediately the road assumed a steep winding 
character admirably adapted for the purposes of defence. On 
each side, as we advanced, we found ourselves enclosed by lofty 
walls, and, by the light of the burning grate of pine-wood which 
was raised aloft in our van, I could distinguish the embrasures 
and loopholes for musketry. I shuddered as I thought of the 
massacre of the Mamelukes, which was perpetrated near this very 
spot, a deed unparalleled in the annals of the world for perfidious 
and cold-blooded atrocity. 

" The circumstances of the massacre are briefly these. Mehemet 
Ali, having by a series of daring attacks, and aided by much cun- 
ning artifice, deposed the Mameluke rulers who had governed 
Egypt for more than seven centuries, and placed himself upon the 
throne of the country, made a kind of capitulation with the fallen 
chiefs, by which he agreed to give them support and protection. 
In consequence, they came to reside in great numbers in Cairo, 
where they conducted themselves peaceably. On the occasion of 
a fete in honor of his son, the Pacha invited the Mamelukes to 
attend and assist at the festivities. 1 They entered the palace 

1 The massacre of the Mamelukes took place on March 1, 1811. 



40 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836. 

of the citadel, to the number of 470, dressed in their gorgeous and 
picturesque costume, but without arms. Mehemet Ali received 
them with smiles, and it was remarked that he was more than 
usually courteous. They departed, their hearts lighted up with 
a glow by his affability, and proceeded in a gay procession down 
to the gate which we had just passed ; it was closed ; as the first 
victim reached the gate, a hundred discharges of musketry from 
the walls on each side opened upon them. They turned to retreat, 
but the gate behind was also closed, and they were fast in the 
toils of their betrayer and destroyer. Only one man is said to 
have escaped, who rode his horse up a steep bank, and forced him 
over the battlement and into a gulf seventy feet deep below. 
The horse was killed, but the rider escaped, and made his way to 
Europe. Such is the substance of a deed of blood which had 
no provocation, no state necessity, nor a semblance even of justice, 
to palliate its unmitigated character of treachery, and yet here am 
I — I recollected with emotions of shame — passing over the 
scene of such a bloody tragedy, to do obeisance to the principal 
actor ! 

" The citadel is in extent and appearance something like a con- 
siderable town. As we proceeded through the steep and winding 
avenue, we came upon a thoroughfare lighted up like a bazaar 
with shops or stalls on each side, before which the soldiers were 
loitering and buying fruit or other articles from the lazy dealers, 
who sat cross-legged upon their mats, enveloped in tobacco 
smoke. Having passed under another gateway, and along a 
winding arched passage of massive masonry, an abrupt turning 
or two brought us to a large open square, the opposite sides of 
which were lighted up. Here, as we approached the centre of 
power from whence all rank, wealth, and authority are derived in 
this region of despotism, the throng of military of all ranks be- 
came more dense, just as the rays of light or the circles of water 
are closest where the heat or motion which gives them existence has 
its origin. We dismounted at the principal entrance and found 
ourselves in a hall, which, with the stairs that we immediately 
ascended, was almost impassable for the crowds of military who" 
lounged and loitered in no very orderly manner by the way. At 
the head of the stairs we entered a very large hall, which pre- 
sented a curious spectacle. Along its whole' length and breadth, 
with only just sufficient interval towards one of the sides to 
afford room for passing to a door at the farther extremity, were 
seen cross-legged upon the floor, on little mats, an immense num- 
ber of Turkish and Arab soldiers, whose arms and slippers were 
lying beside them. We passed along the entire length of the 
large room, too quickly to allow of more than a moment's surprise 
at the scene before us, when entering another apartment we 



.fflr.82.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 41 

found ourselves in a great, lofty chamber, from the centre of 
which hung a chandelier holding probably twenty yellowish- 
white wax candles, and in the centre of the floor stood a row of 
four gigantic silver candlesticks like those used in Catholic chap- 
els, and each holding a huge candle of four feet in length, and 
a proportionate diameter. By their united light we could very 
indistinctly see to the extremities of the room, from whose far- 
thest corner one or two persons hastily retired as we entered, 
leaving us, as I thought, alone in this huge apartment. 

" Colonel C, who preceded our party a few steps, now bowed 
towards the farthest corner of the room — a movement which we 
all imitated as we followed. A dozen steps brought my feet close 
to the bowl of a long, superbly enriched pipe which rested in a 
little pan on the floor, the other extremity of which was held by 
a short and rather fat personage, who was seated alone just to the 
right of the corner of the room upon a broad and soft divan, 
which ran round the apartment like a continual sofa. He laid 
aside his pipe, uttered several times a sentence, which we guessed 
was an expression of welcome, from its being delivered in a good- 
natured and affable tone, and accompanied at each repetition by 
the motion of his hands, as he pointed with more of hurry than 
dignity to the divan on each side of him, as signs for us to be 
seated. The Colonel took his place to the right, and the rest of 
the party sat down upon the divan in the order in which they 
were standing. It chanced that I was placed immediately to his 
left, and thus I found myself quite close, or at least as near as I 
desire ever to be, to Mehemet Ali ! It happened that at the mo- 
ment of our arrival the dragoman or interpreter was not in attend- 
ance, and therefore as soon as we were seated a slight embarrass- 
ment ensued. The Pacha did not appear in the least ruffled by 
the neglect of his officer ; he looked towards the door, called for 
somebody, but not impatiently ; then turned to the Colonel, uttered 
a few words, but immediately laughed as if at the recollection of 
his not being understood. Again he turned his eye towards the 
door, called in a louder but still not angry tone for some person, 
but nobody appearing, he then turned to Colonel C. and to us, 
smiled, fidgeted on his seat, rubbed his knee, and twisted the 
fingers of a remarkably white and handsome little hand in the 
handle of his sword. All this was but the affair of a minute or 
two, when an attendant of apparent rank entered, and walked 
quickly up to the Pacha, who appeared to explain goocl-hu- 
moredly the nature of our predicament, and he instantly began 
the duty of interpreting. The Pacha commenced the conversation 
by offering us a welcome ; upon this the Colonel made an observa- 
tion about the weather, which, however excusable it might have 
been in a country where Englishmen have adopted it as a habit 



42 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836. 

of introducing themselves, is little suited to this latitude, where 
uninterrupted sunshine prevails for seven years together. Let 
me leave the speakers to settle the preliminaries of their inter- 
view, whilst in the mean time I describe a little more minutely 
the principal character before me. 

" Mehemet Ali is, I am told, about five feet six or seven inches 
high, but as he now sat beside me, sunk deeply in a soft divan, 
he did not appear even so tall ; he was plainly dressed in a dark 
and simple suit, and wore the red fez or tarboosh cap, which is 
now generally substituted for the turban by men of rank. His 
features are regular and good, and his face might be called hand- 
some, but being somewhat rounded by fatness, I shall use the 
term comely as more expressive of its character. His beard is 
quite white, but I have seen many amongst his subjects with 
richer-looking tufts upon their chins. I glanced at the form of 
his head, which is, as far as I could discern through its cover, 
confirmatory of the science of phrenology — its huge size accord- 
ing with the extraordinary force of character displayed by this 
successful soldier, whilst a broad and massive forehead harmon- 
izes with the powerful intellect he has displayed in his schemes 
of personal aggrandizement. Yet upon the whole there is noth- 
ing extraordinary or striking in the countenance of Mehemet Ali. 
He appeared to me like a good-humored man, and had I been 
called upon at a cursory glance to give an opinion upon such a 
person in a private station, I might have pronounced him an 
amiable and jocular fellow ! However, as I was seated beside an 
extraordinary person, it was natural that I should scrutinize the 
expression of his features with the hope, nay the determination, 
of finding something more than common in his physiognomy. In 
doing so I encountered his dark eye several times, and thought it 
did not improve upon closer acquaintance. His mouth, too, 
which is almost concealed beneath his white moustachio, seemed 
only to pretend to smile ; and once or twice I observed that, 
whilst the lips were putting on the semblance of laughter, his 
eye was busily glancing round from under its heavy brows, with 
anything but an expression of unguarded mirth. If the eye do 
not reveal the human character, it will be vain to look for it in 
the more ignoble features of the countenance, and the constant 
workings of this ' mirror of the soul ' alone revealed the restless 
spirit of Mehemet Ali. I never beheld a more unquiet eye than 
his, as it glided from one to another of the persons around him ; 
it was incessantly in motion. Its glance, however, had none of 
that overpowering character which beams only from the soul of 
real genius; — there was neither moral nor intellectual grandeur 
in the look of the person before me, and I could not help think- 
ing, as he stole furtive glances first at us and next at the door, 



Ml. 32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 43 

that that eye might have been employed in watching the store of 
his quondam tobacco shop from the pilfering hands of his Alba- 
nian countrymen, with greater appropriateness than in now look- 
ing down upon us from the divan of a pacha. 1 

" Altogether there was as little dignity as possibly can be con- 
ceived in the personal appearance of Mehemet. Were I to con- 
fess what were the feelings which predominated in my mind as I 
regarded him whilst he sat, or rather perched, upright on the mid- 
dle of the divan, without resting or reclining upon its pillows, 
and with his legs tucked beneath him, so as to leave only his slip- 
pers peeping out from each side of his copious nether garments, 
they certainly partook largely of the ridiculous. 

" Coffee was brought to us in little cups enclosed in covers of 
filigree-work made of silver, and which I was afterwards told by 
one of the party (I did not myself notice them) was richly set 
with diamonds. 

" When the first civilities had passed, the Pacha, as if impa- 
tient of unmeaning puerilities, took up the conversation with an 
harangue of considerable length, which he delivered with great 
animation. I felt curious to know what was the subject which 
seemed to possess so much interest with the practical mind of the 
Pacha. Judge then of my astonishment when I found that the 
burden of his discourse was cotton ! The speaker was boasting 
of the richness and fertility of his territory, and to illustrate the 
productiveness of Egypt, he gave us an account of the harvest of 
a particular village in his favorite article of cotton : he entered 
into a minute calculation of the population, number of acres, the 
weight of the produce, the cost of raising, and the value in the 
market, and then gave a glowing picture of the wealth and pros- 
perity of this village, which bore no resemblance to any place 
ever seen by myself or any other traveller in his miserable coun- 
try. It was certainly the most audacious puff ever practised upon 
the credulity of an audience, when Mehemet Ali vaunted the 
happiness and wealth of some ' sweet Auburn ' in his wretched 
and oppressed Pachalic. In reply to his statement, which sa- 
vored so little of truth that I thought it harmonized completely 
with the false expression of the lips which uttered it, the Consul 
directed the Pacha's attention to the gentleman immediately to 
his left, who was from Manchester in England, and whom he 
described to be better acquainted than any person present with 
the subject he was speaking upon. At this remark, he turned 
sharply round, and directed a look towards me, in which, as in 

1 Mehemet Ali, the founder of the present system of government in Egypt, was 
born in 1768 at a small town on the Albanian coast, of an obscure family. For 
some years he dealt in tobacco, and he was thirty years old or more before he effect- 
ively began his military career. 



44 LIFE OF COBDEN. • [1836. 

every glance of his eye, suspicion and cunning predominated. 
He paused for a moment, and the Colonel, not knowing whether 
his hesitation arose from having imperfectly understood him, 
repeated in substance his observation, and explained that Man- 
chester was the chief seat of the British manufacture, and that 
Liverpool was the port by which the materials reached that place. 
Mehemet Ali had not apparently ever heard of either of these 
cities. There was another pause of half a minute, and a slight 
embarrassment in his manner (I was told by one of the party 
afterwards that it appeared as though a slight flush came over his 
face at the same instant), when he abruptly changed the topic of 
conversation, and began to talk of his navy. I was puzzled at 
the moment to divine the cause why the Pacha shunned a dis- 
cussion about his favorite cotton ; it afterward occurred to me, 
and the idea was confirmed by the opinions of others of the party, 
that he avoided talking on a subject on which he was conscious 
that he had greatly exaggerated, with one whom he believed, 
from the too favorable account of the Consul, to be better in- 
formed than himself. 

" The Pacha now proceeded to maintain stoutly that the quality 
of his Syrian pines was equal to that of British oak for the pur- 
poses of ship-building. There was nothing remarkable in the 
conversation that followed, excepting the practical shrewdness 
which characterized the choice and handling of his subjects on 
the part of Mehemet Ali. After an interview of about half an 
hour, in which, from the defective tact and address of Colonel C, 
no person of the party but himself took any share, we made our 
parting salutations, and retired from the audience-chamber, which, 
as I again traversed it, I thought was on a par with a ball-room 
in a second-rate English country town. On proceeding through 
the large anteroom, we found the company listening to the ad- 
dress of their spiritual guide. On our way down the declivity 
from the citadel we passed the menagerie, and I heard the lion 
growling in his clen. I thought of Mehemet Ali." 

DO O 

Cobden had another interview with Mehemet Ali on December 
26, in which they had an hour's conversation on the Pacha's way 
of managing his cotton factories. He confesses himself to have 
been particularly struck with the Pacha's readiness in replying 
and reasoning, with his easy handling of his 2| per cents and 20 
per cents, and with his "love of facts and quickness of calcula- 
tion." " It is this calculating talent, aided by higher powers of 
combination and reflection, that has contributed so greatly to- 
wards elevating him to his present position ; for whatever daring 
or courage he may have shown upon emergencies, it is notorious 
that he has always preferred the use of diplomacy to the more 
open tactics of the sword." 



Mr. 32.] . TKAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 45 

Cairo, Dec. 22d, 1836. — " Mehemet Ali is pursuing a course 
of avaricious misrule, which would have torn the vitals from a 
country less prolific than this, long since. As it is, everything is 
decaying beneath his system of monopolies. It is difficult to 
understand the condition of things in Egypt without visiting it. 
The Pacha has, by dint of force and fraud, possessed himself of 
the whole of the property of the country. I do not mean that he 
has obtained merely the rule or government, but he owns the 
whole of the soil, the houses, the boats, the camels, etc. There is 
something quite unique in finding only one landowner and one 
merchant in a country, in the person of its pacha ! He has been 
puffed by his creatures in Europe as a regenerator and a reformer 
— / can trace in him only a rapacious tyrant. It is true he has, 
to gratify an insatiate ambition, attempted to give himself a Euro- 
pean fame, by importing some of the arts of civilized countries 
into Egypt ; but this has been done, not to benefit his people, but 
to exalt himself. His cotton factories are a striking instance of 
this. I have devoted some time to the inspection of these places, 
of which I am surprised to find there are twenty-eight in the 
country, altogether presenting a waste of capital and industry un- 
paralleled in any other part of the world. Magnificent buildings 
have been erected, costly machinery brought from England and 
France, and the whole after a few years presents such an appear- 
ance of dilapidation and mismanagement that to persevere in 
carrying them forwards must be to incur fresh ruin every year. 
At first, steam-engines were put down at the principal mills ; but 
these were soon stopped, and bullock-wheels were substituted, 
which are now in use at all the establishments ! I saw them 
carding with engines almost toothless ; the spinning, which is of 
low numbers, running from 12 to 40, is of the worst possible 
kind ; and, in weaving, the lumps and knots keep the poor weaver 
in constant activity cutting and patching his web. There is one 
mill, built at the side of the river, which presents a splendid ap- 
pearance as you approach from Alexandria ; it contains the finest 
room-full of Sharp and Eoberts's looms that I ever saw. The engine 
of this does not work, and they have therefore turned these power- 
looms into hand-looms, and are making cloth that could not be sold 
at any price in Manchester. All this waste is going on with the best 
raw cotton, which ought to be sold with us, and double its weight 
of Surats bought for the manufacturer of such low fabrics. This 
is not all the mischief, for the very hands that are driven into 
these manufactures are torn from the cultivation of the soil, which 
is turned into desert for want of cultivation, whilst it might be 
the most fertile in the world. But the most splendid of all his 
buildings is the print-works. Think of a couple of block shops, 
each nearly a hundred yards long and fifteen feet high ; imagine 



46 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1836-37. 

a croft enclosed with solid walls, containing nearly fifty acres, and 
conceive this to be intersected with streams of water in all direc- 
tions, and with taps for letting on the water at any particular 
place ; think of such a place, compared with which ours or the 
best of the Lancashire works are but as barns, and then what do you 
say when I tell you that one of these block shops contained about 
fifteen tables at work, whilst in the other the tables were all piled 
up in one corner, and the only occupants of it were a couple of 
carpet-weavers trying to produce a hearth-rug ! All this is not 
the work of Mehemet Ali. The miserable adventurers from Eu- 
rope, who have come here to act the parasites of such a blood- 
stained despot — they are partly the cause of the evil. But 
they know his selfish nature, and his lust of fame, and this is 
only their mode of deluding the one and pandering to the other." l 

On the 19th of January Cobden left Alexandria, and arrived 
at Constantinople on the 1st of February : — 

On board the Sardinian Brig, La Virtu, in the Sea of Marmora, 
Jan. 29th, 1837. — "On the 24th we found ourselves becalmed 
under the island of Scio, the most fertile and the largest of the 
Archipelago. In the evening the moon rose, and diffused over the 
atmosphere, not merely a light, but a blaze, which illuminated 
the hills and vales of Scio, and shed a rosy tint over every object 
in the island. The sea was as tranquil as the land, and everything 
seemed to whisper security and repose. How different was the 
scene on this very island twelve years ago, when the Turks burst 
in upon a cultivated, wealthy, and contented population, and 
spread death and destruction through the land, changing in one 
short day this paradise of domestic happiness into a theatre of 
the most appalling crimes. I must recall to your minds the par- 
ticulars of this dreadful tragedy. Scio had taken no part in the 
revolution of the Greeks, and its inhabitants, who were industri- 
ous and rich, voluntarily placed hostages of their chief men in 
the hands of the Turkish Government, as a proof that they were 
not disposed to rebel against their rulers. It happened, however, 
that some young men of the neighboring islands of Samos and 
Ipsara landed at one extremity of the island, and there planted 
the standard of revolt, which, however, was not followed by the 
Sciotes. On the contrary, they protested against it ; and, as they 
had delivered up their arms as a proof of their peaceful intentions, 
they could do no more. The pretence, however, was seized upon 
by the Government of Constantinople, and the island was doomed 
to a visit from the Turkish Admiral, and a body of ruffianly troops 
who were promised a free license of blood and plunder. 

" The riches of the island, the beauty and accomplishments of 

1 To Mr. George Foster, from Cairo, December 22, 1836. 



jEt. 32.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 47 

the females, were held out as inducements to draw all the ruffians 
of the capital to join in the expedition of rapine and murder. 
The situation of the island, too, afforded the opportunity of pass- 
ing from the mainland across a narrow strait of about seven miles, 
and thousands of the miscreants from all the towns of the coast 
of Asia Minor, including Smyrna, flocked to the scene of woe. 
ISTow only picture to yourselves such a scene as the Isle of Wight, 
supposing it to be one third more populous and larger in circum- 
ference, and then imagine that its inhabitants in the midst of un- 
suspecting security were suddenly burst upon by 20,000 of the 
butchers, porters, thieves, and desperadoes of London, Portsmouth, 
etcetera. Imagine these for three days in unbridled possession 
of the persons and property of every soul in that happy island ; 
conceive all the churches filled with mangled corpses, the rich 
proprietors hanging dead at their own house doors, the ministers 
of religion cruelly tortured — imagine all that could happen from 
the knives, swords, and pistols of men who were inured to blood, 
and suppose the captivity and sufferings of every young female 
or male, who were without exception torn away and sold into 
captivity ; — and you will not then picture a quarter part of the 
horrors which happened at the massacre of Scio. Of nearly 100,000 
persons on the island in the month of May, not more than 700 
were left alive there at the end of two months after. Upwards 
of 40,000 young persons of both sexes were sold into infamous 
slavery throughout all the Mahometan cities of Europe and Asia, 
and not one house was left standing except those of the European 
Consuls ! " 

Constantinople, February 14:th, 1837. — "Do not expect a long 
or rhapsodical letter from me, for I am at the moment of writing 
both cold and cross. A copper pan of charcoal is beside me, to 
which I cannot apply for warmth, because it gives me the head- 
ache. There is a hole in the roof, which lets down a current of 
melted snow, which trickles over my bed and spatters one corner 
of the table on which I am writing. To complete the agreeable 
position of the writer, he is lodging in a house where the good 
man (albeit a tailor !) has a child of every age, from the most dis- 
agreeable and annoying of all ages — eighteen months — upwards 
to ten. My landlady is a bustling little Greek, with a shrill voice 
which is never tired ; but I seldom hear it, because, as her children 
are generally in full chorus during the whole day, it is only when 
they are in bed and she takes advantage of the calm to scold her 
husband, that her solo notes are distinguishable. But you will 
say that I have very little occasion to spend my time indoors, 
surrounded as I am by the beauties of Constantinople. Alas ! if 
I sally* out, the streets are choked with snow and water ; the 
thoroughfares, which are never clean, are now a thousand times 



48 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837. 

worse than Hanging Ditch or Deansgate in the middle of Decem- 
ber. If one walks close to the houses, then there are projecting 
windows from the fronts which just serve to pour an incessant 
stream of water down on your head and neck ; if, to escape drown- 
ing, he goes into the middle of the street, then the passenger is 
up to his knees every step, and sometimes by chance he plunges 
into a hole of mud and water from which he must emerge by the 
charity of some good Turk or Christian. Then, to complete the pic- 
ture of misery, every man or woman you meet dodges you in. order 
to escape contagion, and it would be as difficult almost in Pera, 
the Frank quarter, to touch a person, as if the whole population 
were playing a game of prisoner's base. . With this multitude of 
miseries to encounter without and within doors, I have seen little 
here to amuse or gratify me ; and if it were not for the extreme 
kindness of all the merchants here, with almost all of whom I 
have dined or visited ; and if I had not had other objects in view 
than merely to see this city and neighborhood, I should scarcely 
have stayed a week at Constantinople. The plague has been 
more than commonly destructive ; various accounts give from 50 
to 100,000 deaths, and I have little doubt that more than one 
eighth of the population has been swept away. I must, however, 
tell you for your satisfaction that it has now almost disappeared, 
and that it has quite lost its virulence. Fortunately, the very 
day of my arrival a north wind set in, and brought with it the 
snows and frosts of the Black Sea, against which the pestilence 
could not exist. Had I arrived a week earlier, the weather was 
as mild as summer. That would have given me a better opportu- 
nity of seeing the country, but not with the same security from the 
plague as at present. As I entered the harbor of Constantinople, 
the country was free from snow, and therefore I saw the view to 
pretty good advantage considering that it was the winter-time. 
It is too fine, too magical, for description, and all the accounts 
that you read of it do not do justice to it." 

Smyrna, Feb. 24th, 1837. — "After I wrote to you from Con- 
stantinople, I made an excursion up the Bosphorus to see the 
scenery, which all concur in praising as the most beautiful in 
Europe. I wish I had seen it before I landed in Turkey ; — the 
misery, the dirt, the plague, and all the other disagreeables of 
Constantinople, haunted me even in the quiet and solitude of 
natural beauties which, apart from such associations, are certainly 
enough to excite the romantic fervor of the most chilly-hearted. 
From these causes I am afraid I have not done justice to the 
scene of the Bosphorus. I could not look upon the palaces, the 
kiosks, and wooden houses which crowded the banks of the beau- 
tiful channel with the interest which they might have imparted, 
if I had not known the poverty, vice, and tyranny of their posses- 



Mt. 33.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 49 

sors. Must I confess it? I think the Hudson river a much 
more beautiful scene than the Bosphorus. But let the scenes 
be reversed — if the Bosphorus were in the United States, and 
the Hudson in Turkey — and I should consider probably the 
former incomparably the most beautiful ; so much are we the 
creatures of association." * 

Smyrna, Feb. 24th, 1837. — "In the steamer which brought 
me from Constantinople to this place, we had a great number of 
passengers, chiefly Turks : there were a few Persians. They all 
rested on deck during the whole time. For their convenience 
little raised platforms were placed along each side of the steamer, 
to prevent the wet, if any rain fell, reaching their beds. Hereon 
they spread their mats and arranged their cloaks, and it was amus- 
ing to watch each drawing forth his long pipe, and preparing with 
the aid of a bag of tobacco to sustain the fatigues and sufferings 
of two nights' exposure in such a position. These Turks are the 
most quiet and orderly people in the world when their religious 
fanaticism is untouched, in which case they are at once changed 
into the most sanguinary savages imaginable. Some of our pas- 
sengers were people of good quality, with servants accompany- 
ing them, and they slept in the cabin ; but the whole of the day 
was spent in reposing upon their mats, their legs tucked under, 
and their long pipes in their mouths. A few words sometimes 
were exchanged, but the conversation seemed always to be a sec- 
ondary affair to the enjoyment of the pipe. 

" I found great amusement in walking up and down the deck 
between these rows of quiet, grave Mussulmans, whose pictu- 
resque dresses and arms of various kinds afforded me constant 
interest ; whilst the honest Turks felt equal amusement in rumi- 
nating over their pipes upon the motives which could cause a 

1 In the pamphlet on England, Ireland, and America, Cobden had already- 
indulged a joyous vision of what Constantinople might become under the genius 
of a free government : — " Constantinople, outrivalling New York, may be painted, 
with a million of free citizens, as the focus of all the trade of Eastern Europe. 
Let us conjure up the thousands of miles of railroads, carrying to the very extremi- 
ties of this empire — not the sanguinary satrap, but the merchandise and the busy 
traders of a free state ; conveying — not the firman of a ferocious Sultan, armed 
with death to the trembling slave, but the millions of newspapers and letters, 
which stimulate the enterprise and excite the patriotism of an enlightened people. 
Let us imagine the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora swarming with steamboats, 
connecting the European and Asiatic continents by hourly departures and arrivals ; 
or issuing from the Dardanelles, to reanimate once more with life and fertility the 
hundred islands of the Archipelago ; or conceive the rich shores of the Black Sea 
in the power of the New Englander, and the Danube pouring down its produce 
on the plains of Moldavia and Wallachia, now subject to the plough of the hardy 
Kentuckian. Let us picture the Carolinians, the Virginians, and the Georgians 
transplanted to the coasts of Asia Minor, and behold its hundreds of cities again 
bursting from the tomb of ages, to recall religion and civilization to the spot from 
whence they first issued forth upon the world. Alas ! that this should only be 
an illusion of the fancy! " 

4 



50 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837- 

Giaour like me to set myself the task of walking to and fro on 
the deck for nothing that they could understand, unless for some 
religious penance. There were two old men with green turbans, 
who five times during the day put aside their pipes, turning to 
the east, and, bowing their foreheads to their feet, uttered with 
great fervor their prayers. All this passed unnoticed by their very 
next neighbors — for the Turks are not (what nurses say of chil- 
dren) arrived at the age for taking notice. I have seen all sorts of 
strange scenes happen without disturbing the dreaming attention 
of the Turk. Once in Cairo I was looking out of a window, be- 
neath which three smokers were sitting upon their mats : a boy 
was driving an ass loaded with gravel and sand, which tripped 
just as it was passing full trot by the place, and fell close to the 
smokers, upsetting the contents of the panniers upon their mats. 
The boy immediately set to work shovelling up the sand with his 
hands, and scraping it as well as he could from amongst their 
legs, and having loaded his donkey, he cantered away. Not a 
word or look passed between him and the smokers, who never 
moved from their seats ; and two hours afterwards I passed by 
them, when their posture was precisely the same, and their legs 
were still surrounded by the remains of the load of sand ! " 

Smyrna, Feb. 24th, 1837. — "The house in which I am staying 
is a large, elegantly-furnished one, and the management is of the 
solid kind which Mr. Ehoades' establishment used to be charac- 
terized by. 1 Old, queer-looking servants trot about large corri- 
dors ; there are rooms for Monsieur, snuggeries for Madame, little 
retreats for visitors, in one of which I am sitting, writing ; and all 
have good, substantial fires. In the evening, after a six o'clock 
dinner, parties of ladies walk in without ceremony ; they and the 

young gentlemen of the house, with Madame W (who does 

not speak English), sit down to the faro-table, around which you 
soon hear a babel of tongues, English, French, Greek, and Italian, 

whilst Mr. W and I cause over Eussian politics or political 

economy. One by one the company disappears, after taking a cup 
of coffee the size of a pigeon's egg ; and so noiseless and little 
ceremonious are their appearances and disappearances, that a 
spectator would imagine the visitors to be members of the family, 
who joined each other from different parts of this great house to 
an evening's amusement, and then retired again for the night to 
their several apartments. This is visiting as it should be done." 

The following extracts from his journal may serve to show the 
chief topics of conversation in these very useful visits : — 

Smyrna, Feb. ?>d. — " At Mr. Crespin's, in a conversation upon 
the trade of Turkey, I heard that 350,000Z. of British goods are 

1 Mr. Ehoades was the husband of one of his aunts. 



Mr. 33.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 51 

now lying here for the Persian markets, full one half of the goods 
that came here last year were for Persia. The Persian trade was 
formerly carried on principally from Bombay, or through the 
German fairs. At present these currents are changed. Mr. 

W says that he has been at Constantinople from seventeen 

to eighteen years, and he recollects when the first vessel cleared 
out hence for England. At present an attempt is being made to 
impose transit duty upon the Persian silk coming through Con- 
stantinople. The trade of France is very much diminished ; 
query is the whole demand for Turkey greater now than forty 
years ago ? Smyrna has declined. Wool which formerly went 
to France now goes to London, linseed is now exported from 
Turkey." 

Feb. 4th. — " Again heavy snows ; confined to the house during 
the day. In the evening I accompanied Mr. Longworth to visit 
Mr. Simmonds, a fine old gentleman who has spent thirty-five 
years in Turkey. Like almost all the residents, he is favorable 
to the Turks, and anxious to support them against the Russians ; 
his experiments in farming the high lands for the first time, toler- 
ably successful. In the course of conversation he said that last 
year the government sent a firman to Salonica, and intercepted 
the grain crops which were ready for exportation, ordering them to 
be delivered to its stores at ten piastres and thirty paras the kilo 
(about a bushel) ; he went to the Seraskier and complained, and 
advised him of the impolicy of such a step, upon which he prom- 
ised to inquire into it. The government then sent its agents to 
purchase the grain at eleven or twelve piastres from the farmers, 
who, as the firman had not been withdrawn, sold it eagerly. A 
remonstrance, however, had been sent to the government by the 
farmers of the vicinity of the capital, declaring that they could 

not produce their grain at less than fifteen piastres the kilo 

It snowed all day. I remained at home, and read, and made ex- 
tracts from pamphlets, etc." 

Feb. 5th. — " In the morning received a call from Mr. Perkins. 
He spoke of the steamer which goes in about three days to Trebi- 
zond. She sails every fifteen days, and is usually full of freight 
and passengers ; the deck passengers pay 200 piastres, or about 
two pounds, cabin passengers ten pounds. She carries a great 
number of porters, who come to Constantinople for work, remain 
perhaps for six months, and then return. The goods sent to 
Trebizond are forwarded chiefly to Erzeroum, from whence they 
are distributed throughout Persia and the surrounding countries. 
Long-cloths and prints are the principal articles. I received a 
visit from Dr. Millingen. 1 Says Mr. Urquhart is Scotch, was 

1 The well-known physician who attended Byron in his last illness, and who 
died at Constantinople in the year 1878. 



52 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837. 

educated at college, went out to the aid of the Greeks at their 
revolution, was severely wounded on two occasions, afterwards 
travelled for some years in Turkey, discovered ' the municipalities, 
direct taxation, and freedom of trade,' which were the secret pre- 
servers of Turkey. Afterwards he went to England, agitated the 
press, the ministers, and the king in favor of Turkey. He sue- ' 
ceeded in making every newspaper editor and reviewer adopt his 
views, excepting Tait. He afterwards wrote his Resources of 
Turkey, and then his pamphlet. He was patronized by Lord 
Ponsonby, until he received his appointment of Secretary of 
Legation, when his active and personal exertions in promoting 
his own peculiar policy produced a coolness between them. He 
was sent out by the English Government to arrange the commer- 
cial treaty. He, the ambassador, and the consul are all at dag- 
gers drawn. 

" There are no associations at all amongst the Turks, such as are 
alluded to by Urquhart, under the name of Municipalities. Those 
amongst the rayahs have reference to the regulation of their own 
affairs in the manner of the English Quakers or Methodists, ex- 
cepting that in their own disputes they are allowed to arbitrate 
without appealing to Turkish tribunals. The term Municipali- 
ties is misapplied, and only calculated to deceive. In taxing the 
rayahs, the amounts levied are arbitrary, and the only privilege 
the various sects possess is to raise the money in the best way 
they can, as a body amongst themselves, instead of the Turkish 
authorities coming in contact with individuals. The system was 
no doubt originated for the purpose of enabling the Turks to levy 
their imposts with greater facility. The Greeks, Armenians, 
Jews, etc., have no protection from these imaginary municipali- 
ties." 

Feb. 7th. — " In the morning I called on Mr. Perkins, who is 
opposed to the belief in the regeneration of the Turks. The 
municipalities are aptly ridiculed in the novel of Anastasius (by 
Hope), where the Turk sits upon the ground smoking under a 
tree, and leaves the people of the village, where he had been sent 
to levy contributions, to raise the money in the best way they 
can. Mr. Ealli attributes the evils of Turkey to the radical vices 
of the institutions, to the monopolies, and above all to the depre- 
ciation of the standard of value in the money. The trade to 
Persia through Constantinople has increased very much, but 
fluctuates greatly. One year it has been probably 7 to 800,000/. ; 
at another, owing to a glut, not half of that amount. But he is 
certain that the trade to Persia, etc., is double that of Constanti- 
nople for Turkey. In the evening I dined with Mr. Thomasset, 
and met Mr. Boudrey, a French gentleman of intelligence. He 
says the trade direct with France has nearly fallen away entirely 



Mi. 33.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 53 

with Turkey. Belgian, Swiss, and German fabrics have superseded 
those from France. No regular impost is levied by government 
all through its dominions ; every pacha is to raise a certain sum, 
and he does it in his own way. Mustapha Pacha, of Adrianople, 
when ordered to send a certain quantity of corn to government 
at a certain price, fixed 12 piastres as the value, because the 
Europeans would give it, and he would not let his people supply 
it for less. He is an exception, and popular." 

Feb. 8th. — " In the evening I dined with Mr. Perkins and met 
Mr. Webster, &c. I was told that no fortunes have been made 
by British merchants at Constantinople ; that the business is so 
insecure, and that they are beginning to wish for the Russians, 
more money being made by the residents at Odessa." 

Feb. 9th. — " Mr. Cartwright, the consul, called. In speaking 
of trade to Persia, he said that, previous to 1790, the commerce 
went by way of Aleppo, where there were twenty-eight English 
houses. The shipments were. made at two seasons of the year, in 
six large vessels to Scanderoon, or Ladikiyeh, where there were 
large warehouses for depots. After that epoch the stream of 
commerce went in the direction of Bombay for the lower division 
of Persia, and by way of Eussia for the other quarters of it. The 
modern route by Constantinople is not more than fifteen years 
old. After our treaty of 1820, Turkey began its system of im- 
posts upon internal commerce. He thinks that Mehemet Ali gave 
the impulse to Mahmoud in many of his reforms. The change 
is only in the dress and whitewashing of the houses, nothing 
fundamental being altered. After the destruction of the Janissa- 
ries, it seems that he has been quite at sea. Ruined, worn-out 
country." 

Feb. 11th. — "Mr. Hanson thinks that matters are worse since 
the time of the Janissaries, who were the opposition and check 
of the government. Then the people were only plundered and 
oppressed by the Sultan and his Grand Vizier, but now every one 
of the pachas about the person of the Sultan can, by obtaining 
firmans, oppress the poor agriculturalist. Mr. Perkins thinks the 
trade for Turkey does not, in Constantinople, exceed 400,000/. ; 
he was told that Persia took in one year 1,200,000/. The trade 
to Persia is new for the last few years by this route ; he thinks it 
both a creation and a transition ; some of it is merely removed 
from Bombay. A ship or two in the year comes from Trieste, 
bringing goods from the German fairs to the Black Sea. In the 
evening I dined with Mr. Cartwright, and met a party of mer- 
chants. After dinner we discussed the trading prospects of 
Turkey. All agreed that the money amount of the consumption 
of British goods is diminishing, and that the trade to Persia forms 
two thirds of the imports into Constantinople. Mr. Cartwright 



54 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837. 

spoke of a person who, in Turkey, told him he had bought cloth 
for his coat which cost him only half as much as he would have 
paid for it in England. The company are obliged by their charter 
to take so much woollen cloth, which they sold at a loss. Eussia, 
Mr. Cartwright thinks, will again let the trade go through Georgia, 
by which route it formerly reached Persia ; he says that, after 
exhausting the fortunes of the Armenians and others, he, the 
Sultan, has since been preying upon agriculture. The Exchange 
operations of the government are merely depreciating his currency, 
and robbing the people by purchasing the non-interference of the 
foreign merchant. Eussia is continually increasing the number ■ 
of her subjects by naturalization. The rayahs, who form the most 
industrious and best, besides the most numerous part of the com- 
munity, would certainly benefit by a Christian government. Mr. 
Cartwright and all present agreed that the Turks have not them- 
selves the power of regeneration, and that, unless foreign aid 
prevent it, they must fall to pieces in less than twenty years. 
But absolute occupation and authority must be possessed by the 
power that would regenerate Turkey. Every public servant, from 
the highest to the lowest, must be dismissed, as they are all 
corrupt. A Turk, the moment he enters the public service, is 
necessarily a rascal. England must, if she interposes at all, take 
the part of a principal, not an auxiliary? 

From Smyrna, after a fortnight's cruise among the islands, 
Cobden arrived at Athens, March 19th, where the political and 
economic circumstances of the new Hellenic kingdom interested 
him more keenly than the renowned monuments, though he did 
not fail in attention to them also. His inquiries filled him, as is 
usually the case with travellers, with admiration for the gifts of 
the Greek people, and confidence in their future. The perverse 
diplomacy which settled the limits and constitution of the king- 
dom, he viewed with a contempt which the course of Eastern 
events in the forty years since his visit has fully justified. His 
hopes for the future of the Greeks were not colored by the 
conventional acceptance of the glories of their past. He was 
amazed to find the mighty states of Attica and Sparta within an 
area something smaller than the two counties of Yorkshire and 
Lancashire. " What famous puffers those old Greeks were ! Half 
the educated world in Europe is now devoting more thought to 
the ancient affairs of these Lilliputian states, the squabbles 
of their tribes, the wars of their villages, the geography of their 
rivulets and hillocks, than they bestow upon the modern history 
of the South and North Americas, the politics of the United 
States, and the charts of the mighty rivers and mountains of the 
new world." 1 

1 To F. Cobden, from Smyrna, March 3d, 1837. 



^t. 33.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 55 

" The antiquities of Athens may be cursorily viewed in half a 
day. I was not so highly impressed with the merits of these 
masterpieces from reading and plates, as I found myself to be on 
looking at the actual remains of those monuments and temples, 
whose ruins crown the rocky platform of the Acropolis. I am 
satisfied that there is nothing now in existence which for beauty 
of design, masterly workmanship, and choice of situation, can 
compare with that spectacle of grandeur and sublimity which the 
public temples of ancient Athens presented two thousand years 
ago. What a genius and what a taste had those people ! And, 
mind, the genius is there still. All the best deeds of ancient times 
will be again rivalled by the Greeks of a future age. Do not 
believe the lying and slandering accounts which the dulness of 
some travellers, the envy of Levant merchants, and the Franks 
of Constantinople, utter against the Greek character. The raw 
material of all that is noble, brilliant, refined, and glorious, is still 
latent in the character of this people : overlaid, as is natural, with 
the cunning-, falsehood, meanness, and other vices inherent in the 
spirits of slaves. 

"Do not, however, fancy that I am predicting the revival of 
Greek greatness, through the means of the present little trumpery 
monarchy of that name, which will pass away like other bubbles 
blown by our shallow statesmen. All the East will be Greek, 
and Constantinople, no matter under what nominal sovereignty it 
may fall, will by the force of the indomitable genius of the Greeks 
become in fact the capital of that people." x 

Athens, March 22. — "In .the evening at Sir E. Lyons' I met 
Captain Fisher, who spoke of the haste with which he was ordered 
to sea for the Levant. He left his own son behind him, whom I 
met in Egypt, going to India, and for whom he had not dared 
to wait twenty-four hours. He also left behind two guns. He 
remarked that if the lives and fortunes of a nation were at 
stake, he could not have used more pressing expedition — yet all 
for no purpose that can be discovered ! The Portland is carrying 
home Count Armansperg, the dismissed Minister of Greece, after 
bringing the King and Queen of Greece. 2 I saw this ship at 

1 ToF. Gobden, April 18, 1837. 

2 The new kingdom was intrusted to a Regency until the completion of King 
Otho's twentieth year (June 1, 1835). Count Armansperg was President, and Von 
Maurer was his principal colleague. The pair showed that Germans are capable of 
rivalling the Greeks themselves in hatred and intrigue. " Count Armansperg, as 
a noble, looked down on Maurer as a pedant and law professor. Maurer sneered 
at the Count as an idler, fit only to be a diplomatist or a master of the ceremonies." 
(Finlay, vii. 12.) When King Otho returned to his kingdom in the Portland (Feh., 
1837), he brought with him his young bride, Queen Amelia, and Rudhart to be his 
prime minister. Armansperg was recalled to Bavaria, after disastrous failure in his 
administration. Cobden might have found an excellent text for a sermon in the 
childish perversity which marked Lord Palmerston's dealings with Greece in these 



56 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837. 

Malta on my way out to Egypt in November. She was fitted up 
superbly for this young lady and gentleman, and their maids 
of honor and attendants. She went to Venice, and was in waiting 
for the royal holiday folks for two months. The Madagascar, 
Capt. Lyons, brought out the Eegency and the young king. The 
wives of the members of the Eegency quarrelled even on the 
passage. Some time ago the Medea steamer was carrying the old 
King of Bavaria and his son to the islands of the Archipelago and 
the coast of Asia Minor. We are general carriers for erratic roy- 
alty all over the world ; witness, Donna Maria Miguel, old Ferdi- 
nand of Naples, the King of Portugal, and their precious minions, 
were the choice freights of our ships of war. When will this folly 
have an end ? " 

March 24. — "At twelve o'clock at night [in the Piraeus harbor] 
I went on board a little boat, which set sail immediately for Kala- 
maki [in the Isthmus of Corinth]. It was a clear, fresh, moonlight 
night, and a favorable breeze soon carried us from among the ships 
in the harbor." 

March 25. — " In the morning we were half-way across the gulf 
[the Saronic Gulf] by nine o'clock. ... At eight o'clock in the 
evening we arrived at Kalamaki. On the beach were two persons 
fishing with a blazing torch and spear. ' We entered the khan. 
A few phials were on a little bar, behind which sat the master. 
At the other ends of the room were raised platforms of two stages, 
reaching to the ceiling, or rather roof (for there was no interior 
covering), on which the travellers had spread mats, and on some 
of which their snoring occupants were reposing for the night, 
whilst others were sitting smoking their pipes. An officer in the 
new uniform, and another in the Albanian dress, vrere sitting at a 
little table taking their supper with their fingers from the same 
dish. A little wood fire was blazing at one side of the room, 
upon which was some hot water, and by the side hung coffee-pots 
of every size, from the bigness of a thimble upwards. A large 
mortar of marble stood by the side of the fire, into which the 
coffee-grains were thrown by the servant, and pounded with a 
pestle, previous to being boiled for his customers. This custom 
of pounding instead of grinding the coffee is, I believe, universal 
in the East. 

" We found a proprietor of a boat from the other side of the 
isthmus, and engaged with him to take us to Patras for twelve 
dollars. We hired horses and set off across the isthmus, a dis- 
tance of about six miles to Loutraki. The night was clear and 
cool, and the moon at nearly its full ; the scenery of the moun- 

years, from his stubborn defence of Count Armansperg down to his disputes about 
court etiquette, and his employment of the fleet to enforce the payment of a trifling 
debt. 



.fflT.83.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 57 

tainous and rugged neck of land which we traversed, and of the 
gulfs on each side, was romantic. At Loutraki we saw the caves 
and hollows in the sides of the mountains, into which the women 
and children were thrust for concealment during the war. 

" We got on board at midnight, and set sail down the Gulf of 
Corinth or Lepanto for Patras. Parnassus on our right, covered 
with snow — a cold bed for the muses ! On each side the hills 
are crowned with snow. At night the wind was foul and con- 
trary, and our boat took shelter in a port on the Eoumeliot side 
of the gulf, and, on the morning of the 27th of March, finding that 
there was no chance of getting forward, I turned to the opposite 
coast, and ran for a little village, where I determined to hire 
horses, and push forward for Patras by land. We came to anchor 
near a shop, where the proprietor sold every variety of petty mer- 
chandise, such as wine, paper, candles, nails, &c, and we took 
some coffee, whilst a person went in search of horses. The owner 
of the cattle arrived soon afterwards, to make a bargain of a dollar 
each horse for Vostizza. He had left his animals concealed 
behind a bridge, and, as soon as we had agreed to his terms, they 
were produced. This cunning is the result of a long experience 
of Turkish violence. We set off with some companions for Vos- 
tizza, along a road bordering close upon the gulf, at the foot of 
lofty banks or hills that bound either side of the water. We 
passed some rich little valleys, finely cultivated and all planted 
with the little currant-trees. Stopped at a hut in the middle of 
the day, and ate some black bread and olives, and drank some 
wine and water. Again set forward and reached Vostizza, a little 
seaport situated in a rich and well-cultivated valley, all planted 
with currants. The people appeared industriously at work. On 
walking out into the town of Vostizza, I found a few stone 
houses, apparently lately erected, and of public utility. Saw a 
concourse of people around one of these, in which there was to be 
an auction of public lands. 

" In the khan or lodgings where I put up, there was nothing to 
be had to eat but eggs and caviare. I went to bed early, intend- 
ing to be called at three o'clock, but could not sleep from the 
noise of Greeks, who were laughing and dancing in the next 
room. When I had by dint of threats and vociferations quieted 
these fellows, I was beset by such multitudes of fleas that I 
could not obtain a moment's repose. I therefore arose at two 
o'clock, and, as the horses soon afterwards appeared, we set off for 
Patras. The moon was bright and the air cool, and we proceeded 
along a path close to the gulf; passed some shepherds' huts in 
which the lights were burning, and the dogs gave note of watch- 
fulness. As daylight appeared, I looked anxiously to the coast 
for the spectacle of a sunrise behind the mountains of Eoumelia. 



58 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837. 

The first rays lighted up the summits of Parnassus and the other 
lofty mountains, whose snowy peaks were tinged with rosy hues. 
By degrees the sky assumed a dark dull red aspect, above the 
eastern range of hills ; this shade gradually grew more lurid, until 
little by little the horizon, from a sombre red, assumed a dazzling 
appearance of fiery brightness, and shortly afterwards the sun 
flamed above the mountainous outline over the gulf, hills, and 
valleys around us. The path all the way lay through a thicket 
of shrubs of a thousand kinds, some evergreen, others aromatic, 
and the whole wearing the appearance of a pleasure-ground in 
England. The flowers, too, were fragrant, and the whole scene 
was full of luxuriant richness and beauty. 

" We stopped at a hut at nine o'clock to breakfast, where we 
found a poor mud cottage, containing a few coarse articles of use 
for sale, as well as some bread and cheese of a very uninviting 
quality. I saw Lepanto on the opposite side of the gulf, and 
soon afterwards the Castles of Patras and Eoumelia, which guard 
the entrance of the Gulf of Lepanto. At half-past twelve o'clock 
we entered Patras and went straightway to the Consul's house, to 
learn the time when the steamer would sail. I washed, dressed, 
and dined, and immediately afterwards went on board the Hermes 
steamer, Captain Blount, which arrived from Corfu. We set 
sail at four o'clock. In the evening, at ten, we called off Zante 
for letters, and then proceeded with favorable breezes for Malta." 

At Malta Cobden formed some very decided opinions as to the 
policy of naval administration, as illustrated at that station. 

" The Malta station is the hot-bed for naval patronage, and the 
increase of our ships of war. They are sent to the Mediterranean 
for five years, the large ships are for six or eight months of each 
year anchored in Malta harbor, or else in Vourla or Tenedos. In 
the summer, for the space of four or five months, they make ex- 
cursions round Sicily, or in the Archipelago as far as Smyrna or 
Athens, and then they return again to their anchorage to spend 
the winter in inactivity ; the officers visiting in the city, or per- 
haps enjoying a long leave of absence, whilst the men, to the 
number of six, seven, or eight hundred, are put to such exercise 
or employment as the ingenuity of the first lieutenant can devise 
on board ship, or else are suffered to wander on shore upon oc- 
casional leaves of absence. This is not the way either to make 
good sailors, or to add to the power of the British empire. The 
expenses are borne by the industry of the productive classes 
at home. The wages of these idlers are paid out of the taxes 
levied upon the soap, beer, tobacco, &c, consumed by the peo- 
ple of England. But what a prospect of future expense does 
this state of things hold out to the nation. Every large ship 
contains at least forty or fifty quarter-deck officers, each one of 



Mi. 33.] TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST. 59 

whom, from trie junior supernumerary midshipman up to the 
first lieutenant, has entered the service, hoping and relying that 
he will in due course of time, either by means of personal merit 
or aided by the influence of powerful friends, attain to the com- 
mand of a ship of war, and all these will press their claims upon 
the Admiralty for future employment, and will be entitled to 
hope, as they grow older, that their emoluments, rank, and pros- 
pects will improve every year with their increased necessities. 
What then is the prospect which such a state of things holds out 
to the two parties concerned, the nation on the one hand, and its 
servants, its meritorious servants, on the other ? Unwise to en- 
courage this increase of the navy, parents might find a much 
better field in unsettled regions abroad." 1 

Leaving Malta on April 4, and touching at Gibraltar, he there 
in the course of his indefatigable questioning found new con- 
firmation of his opinions from competent and disinterested in- 
formants. 

April 15, 1837. — "In conversation Waghorn said that the 
admirals are all too old, and that this accounts for the service 
being less efficient now than heretofore ; that the ships are put 
up for six months in the winter months at Malta, during which 
there is of course no exercise in seamanship for the men. Mr. 
Andrews told me that there are sometimes twenty ships of war 
lying at one time in Malta. The mode of promotion is as bad or 
worse now than under the Tories ; there are captains now in the 
command of ships who five years ago had not passed as midship- 
men, and there are hundreds of mates pining for lieutenancies, 
who have passed ten years. The Treasury presses upon the 
Admiralty for the promotion of friends and dependents of the 
ministers of the clay, and thus leaves no room for the exercise of 
justice towards the old and deserving officers. This was more 
excusable at the time of the rotten boroughs than now, when no 
such interest can be necessary. There are thirty or forty mid- 
shipmen in one of the first-raters ; how much incipient disap- 
pointment, poverty, and neglect ! The Admiral states that it is 
enough to depress his spirits to see so many young men, some of 
them twenty-five, and capable of commanding the best ships, 
filling the situation of boys only. Young Baily in conversation 
spoke of the way in which the Portland was fitted up for the 
Queen of Greece and her maids of honor, twenty guns removed 
and the space converted into elegant rooms draped and furnished 
for the king, queen, and suite. The queen, on arriving at Athens, 
was so pleased with her lodging on board, that she sent an artist 
to take a drawing of her rooms. The vessel waited a couple of 

1 Journal, March 31, 1837. 



60 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

months at Trieste and Venice, for the royal pair. After bringing 
them and their ministers, the Portland carried back Count Arman- 
sperg to Malta." 1 

On the 21st of April Cobden arrived at Falmouth, after an 
absence of six months. I must repeat here what I said at the 
beginning of these extracts, that the portions of his letters and 
journals which record the most energetic of his interests and his 
inquiries, are precisely those which are no longer worth reprodu- 
cing, because the facts of commerce and of politics, which formed 
the most serious object of his investigation, have undergone such 
a change as to be hardly more to our purpose than the year's 
almanac. When we come to the journals of ten years later, the 
reader will be able to judge the spirit and method with which 
Cobden travelled, and perhaps to learn a lesson from him in the 
objects of travel. Meanwhile, Cobden could hardly have spent a 
more profitable holiday, for he had laid up a great stock of politi- 
cal information, and acquired a certain living familiarity with the 
circumstances of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean and the 
Turkish Government — then as now the centre of our active 
diplomacy — and with the real working of those principles of 
national policy which he had already condemned by the light of 
native common sense and reflection. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 

It is not at the first glance very easy to associate a large and 
theorizing doctrine of human civilization with the name of one 
who was at this time a busy dealer in printed calicoes, and who 
almost immediately afterwards became the most active of political 
agitators. There may seem to be a certain incongruity in discuss- 
ing a couple of pamphlets by a Manchester manufacturer, as if 
they were the speculations of an abstract philosopher. Yet it is 
no strained pretension to say that at this time Cobden was fully 
possessed by the philosophic gift of feeling about society as a 
whole, and thinking about the problems of society in an ordered 
connection with one another. He had definite and systematic 
ideas of the way in which men ought now to travel in search of 
improvement ; and he attached new meaning and more compre- 
hensive purpose to national life. 

1 Journal, April 15. 



Mi. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 61 

The agitations of the great Reform Act of 1832 had stirred up 
social aspirations, which the Liberal Government of the next ten 
years after the passing of the Act were utterly unable to satisfy. 
This inability arose partly from their own political ineptitude and 
want alike of conviction and courage ; and partly from the fact 
that many of these aspirations lay wholly outside of the sphere of 
any government. To give a vote to all ten-pound householders, 
and to abolish a few rotten boroughs, was seen to carry the nation 
a very little way on the journey for which it had girded itself up. 
The party which had carried the change seemed to have sunk 
to the rank of a distracted faction, blind to the demands of the new 
time, with no strong and common doctrine, with no national aims, 
and hardly even with any vigorous personal ambitions. People 
suddenly felt that the interesting thing was not mechanism but 
policy, and unfortunately the men who had amended the mechanism 
were in policy found empty and without resource. The result of 
the disappointment was such a degree of fresh and independent 
activity among all the better minds of the time, that the succeed- 
ing generation, say from 1840 to 1870, practically lived upon the 
thought and sentiment of the seven or eight years immediately 
preceding the close of the Liberal reign in 1841. It was during 
those years that the schools were formed, and the principles shaped, 
which have attracted to themselves all who were serious enough to 
feel the need of a school or the use of a principle. 

If the change in institutions which had taken place in 1832 had 
brought forth hardly any of the fruit, either bitter or sweet, which 
friends had hoped and enemies had threatened, it was no wonder 
that those who were capable of a large earnestness about public 
things, whether civil or ecclesiastical, turned henceforth from the 
letter of institutions to their spirit ; from their form and outer 
framework to the operative force within ; and from stereotyped 
catchwords about the social union to its real destination. It was 
now the day of ideals in every camp. The general restlessness 
was as intense among reflecting Conservatives as among reflecting 
Liberals ; and those who looked to the past agreed with those who 
looked to the future, in energetic dissatisfaction with a sterile 
present. We need only look around to recognize the unity of 
the original impulse which animated men who dreaded or hated 
one another ; and inspired books that were as far apart as a hu- 
moristic novel and a treatise on the Sacraments. A great wave of 
humanity, of benevolence, of desire for improvement, — a great 
wave of social sentiment, in short, — poured itself among all who 
had the faculty of large and disinterested thinking. The political 
spirit was abroad in its most comprehensive sense, the desire of 
strengthening society by adapting it to better intellectual ideals, 
and enriching it from new resources of moral power. A feeling 



62 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

for social regeneration, under what its apostles conceived to be a 
purer spiritual guidance, penetrated ecclesiastical common-rooms 
no less than it penetrated the manufacturing districts. It was in 
1835 that Dr. Pusey threw himself with new heartiness into the 
movement at Oxford, that Dr. Newman projected Catenas of 
Anglican divines, and began to meditate Tract Ninety. In the 
opposite quarter of the horizon Mr. Mill was still endeavoring, in 
the Westminster Revieio, to put a new life into Eadical politics 
by giving a more free and genial character to Eadical speculations, 
and — a far more important task — was composing the treatise 
which gave a decisive tone to English ways, of thinking for thirty 
years afterwards. Men like Arnold and like Maurice were almost 
intoxicated with their passion for making citizenship into some- 
thing loftier and more generous than the old strife of Blues and 
Yellows : unfortunately they were so beset with prejudices against 
what they confusedly denounced as materialism and utilitarian- 
ism, that they turned aside from the open ways of common sense 
and truth to fact, to nourish themselves on vague dreams of a 
church which, though it rested on the great mysteries of the faith, 
yet for purposes of action could only after all become an instru- 
ment for the secular teaching of Adam Smith and Bentham. To 
the fermentation of those years Carlyle contributed the vehement 
apostrophes of Chartism and Past and Present, glowing with 
eloquent contempt for the aristocratic philosophy of treadmills, 
gibbets, and thirty-nine Acts of Parliament " for the shooting of 
partridges alone," but showing no more definite way for national 
redemption than lay through the too vague words of Education 
and Emigration. Finally, in the same decade, the early novels of 
Charles Dickens brought into vivid prominence among the objects 
of popular interest such types of social outlawry as the parish ap- 
prentice, the debtor in prison, the pauper in the workhouse, the 
criminal by profession, and all the rest of that pitiful gallery. 
Dickens had hardly any solution beyond a mere Christmas phi- 
lanthropy, but he stirred the sense of humanity in his readers, and 
from great imaginative writers we have no right to insist upon 
more. 

Notwithstanding their wide diversity of language and of method, 
still to all of these rival schools and men of genius the ultimate 
problem was the same. With all of them the aim to be attained 
was social renovation. Even the mystics of Anglo-Catholicism, as 
I have said, had in the inmost recesses of their minds a clear belief 
that the revival of sacramental doctrine and the assertion of apos- 
tolic succession would quicken the moral life of the nation, and 
meet social needs no less than it would meet spiritual needs. Far 
apart as Cobden stood from these and all the other sections of 
opinion that I have named, yet his early pamphlets show that he 



Mi. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 63 

discerned as keenly as any of them that the hour had come for 
developing new elements in public life, and setting up a new 
standard of public action. To Cobden, as to Arnold or to. Mill, the 
real meaning of his activity was, in a more or less formal and con- 
scious way, the hope of supplying a systematic foundation for 
higher social order, and the wider diffusion of a better kind of 
well-being. 

He had none of the pedantry of the doctrinaire, but he was full 
of the intellectual spirit. Though he was shortly to become the 
leader of a commercial movement, he never ceased to be the 
preacher of a philosophy of civilization ; and his views on trade 
were only another side of views on education and morality. 
Eealist as he was, yet his opinions were inspired and enriched by 
the genius of social imagination. 

Some readers will smile when I say that no teacher of that day 
was found so acceptable or so inspiring by Cobden as George 
Combe. He had read Combe's volume before he wrote his pam- 
phlets, and he said that " it seemed like a transcript of his own 
familiar thoughts." x Few emphatically second-rate men have done 
better work than the author of the Constitution of Man. That 
memorable book, whose principles have now in some shape or 
other become the accepted commonplaces of all rational persons, 
was a startling revelation when it was first published (1828), 
showing men that their bodily systems are related to the rest of 
the universe, and are subject to general and inexorable conditions ; 
that health of mind and character are connected with states of 
body ; that the old ignorant or ascetical disregard of the body is 
hostile both to happiness and mental power ; and that health is a 
true department of morality. We cannot wonder that zealous 
men were found to bequeath fortunes for the dissemination of 
that wholesome gospel, that it was circulated by scores of thou- 
sands of copies, and that it was seen on shelves where there was 
nothing else save the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress. 

It is easy to discern the attraction which teaching so fresh and 
inspiriting as this would have for a mind like Cobden's, constitu- 
tionally eager to break from the old grooves of things, alert for 
every sign of new light and hope in the sombre sky of prejudice, 
and confident in the large possibility of human destiny. To show, 
as Combe showed, that the character and motives of men are con- 
nected with physical predispositions, was to bring character and 
motive within the sphere of action, because we may in that case 
modify them by attending to the requirements of the bodily 
organization. A boundless field is thus opened for the influence 
of social institutions, and the opportunities of beneficence are 

1 Life of George Combe, ii. 11. 



64 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

without limit. There is another side on which Cobden found 
Combe's teaching in harmony with the impulses of his own tem- 
perament : it rests upon the natural soundness of the human 
heart, and its methods are those of mildness and lenity. In his 
intrepid faith in the perfectibility of man and society, Cobden is 
the only eminent practical statesman that this country has ever 
possessed, who constantly breathes the fine spirit of that French 
school in which the name of Turgot is the most illustrious. 

The doctrine of the pamphlets has its avowed source in the 
very same spirit which has gradually banished violence, harsh- 
ness, and the darker shapes of repression from the education of 
the young, from the treatment of the insane, from the punish- 
ment of criminals, and has substituted for those time-honored 
but most ineffective processes, a rational moderation and enlight- 
ened humanity, the force of lenient and considerate example and 
calm self-possession. Non-intervention was an extension of the 
principle which, renouncing appeals through brute violence, rests 
on the nobler and more powerful qualities of the understanding 
and the moral nature. Cobden 's distinction as a statesman was 
not that he accepted and applied this principle in a general way. 
Charlatans and marauders accept such principles in that way. 
His merit is that he discerned that England, at any rate, whatever 
might be true of Germany, France, or Eussia, was in the position 
where the present adoption of this new spirit of policy 'would 
exactly coincide with all her best and largest interests. Now 
and at all times Cobden was far too shrewd and practical in his 
temper to suppose that unfamiliar truths w 7 ill shine into the 
mind of a nation by their own light. It was of England that he 
thought, and for England that he wrote ; and what he did was 
not to declaim the platitudes of rose-colored morality, but by 
reference to the hardest facts of our national existence and inter- 
national relations, to show that not only the moral dignity, but 
the material strength, the solid interests, the real power of the 
country, alike for improvements within and self-defence without, 
demanded the abandonment of the diplomatic principles of a 
time which was as unenlightened and mischievous on many sides 
of its foreign policy, as everybody knows and admits it to have 
been in the schoolroom, in the hospital, and in the offices of the 
national revenue. 

The pamphlets do not deal with the universe, but with this 
country. Their writer has been labelled a cosmopolitan, — usu- 
ally by those who in the same breath, by a violent contradiction, 
reproached him for preaching a gospel of national selfishness and 
isolation. In truth Cobden was only cosmopolitan in the sense 
in which no other statesman would choose to deny himself to be 
cosmopolitan also : namely, in the sense of aiming at a policy 



.St. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 65 

which, in benefiting his own country, should benefit all the rest of 
the world at the same time. " I am an English citizen," he 
would have said, " and what I am contending for is that England 
is to-day so situated in every particular of her domestic and for- 
eign circumstances, that by leaving other governments to settle 
their own business and fight out their own quarrels, and by 
attending to the vast and difficult affairs of her own enormous 
realm and the condition of her people, she will not only be setting 
the world an example of noble morality which no other nation is 
so happily free to set, but she will be following the very course 
which the maintenance of her own greatness most imperatively 
commands. It is precisely because Great Britain is so strong in 
resources, in courage, in institutions, in geographical position, that 
she can, before all other European powers, afford to be moral, and 
to set the example of a mighty nation walking in the paths of 
justice and peace." 

Cobden's political genius perceived this great mark of the time, 
that, in his own, words, ." at certain periods in the history of a 
nation, it becomes necessary to review its principles of domestic 
policy, for the purpose of adapting the government to the chan- 
ging and improving condition of its people." Next, " it must be 
equally the part of a wise community to alter the maxims by 
which its foreign relations have in times past been regulated, in 
conformity with the changes that have taken place over the entire 
globe." 1 Such a period he conceived to have come for England 
in. that generation, and it had come to her both from her internal 
conditions, and from the nature of her connections with the other 
nations of the globe. The thought was brought to him not by 
deliberate philosophizing, but by observation and the process of 
native good sense, offering a fresh and open access to things. The 
cardinal fact that struck his eye was the great population that 
was gathering in the new centres of industry in the north of 
England, in the factories, and mines, and furnaces, and cyclopean 
foundries, which the magic of steam had called into such sudden 
and marvellous being. 

It was with no enthusiasm that he reflected on this transforma- 
tion that had overtaken the western world, and in his first pam- 
phlet he anticipated the cry, of which he heard more than enough 
all through his life, that his dream was to convert England into a 
vast manufactory, and that his political vision was directed by 
the interests of his order. "Ear from nourishing any such esprit- 
de-corps," he says in the first pamphlet, " our predilections lean 
altogether in an opposite direction. We were born and bred up 
amid the pastoral charms of the south of England, and we con- 

1 Advertisement to Russia (1836). 
5 



66 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

fess to so much attachment for the pursuits of our forefathers, 
that, had we the casting of the parts of all the actors in this 
world's stage, we do not think we should suffer a cotton-mill or a 
manufactory to have a place in it. . . . But the factory system, 
which sprang from the discoveries in machinery, has been adopted 
by all the civilized nations in the world, and it is in vain for us 
to think of discountenancing its application to the necessities of 
this country ; it only remains for us to mitigate, as far as possible, 
the evils that are perhaps not inseparably connected with this 
novel social element." 

To this conception of the new problem Cobden always kept 
very close. This was always to him the foundation of the new 
order of things, which demanded a new kind of statesmanship 
and new ideas upon national policy. It is true that Cobden some- 
times slips into the phrases of an older school, about the rights of 
man and natural law, but such lapses into the dialect of a revolu- 
tionary philosophy were very rare, and they were accidents. His 
whole scheme rested, if ever any scheme did so rest, upon the 
wide positive base of a great social expediency. To political 
exclusion, to commercial monopoly and restriction, to the pre- 
ponderance of a territorial aristocracy in the legislature, he 
steadfastly opposed the contention that they were all fatally in- 
compatible with an industrial system, which it was beyond the 
power of any statesman or any order in the country to choose 
between accepting and casting out. 

Fifty years before this, the younger Pitt, when he said that any 
man with twenty thousand pounds a year ought to be made a 
peer if he wished, had recognized the necessity of admitting 
bankers and merchants to a share of the political dignity which 
had hitherto been confined to the great families. It had now 
ceased to be a question of a few peerages more or less for Lom- 
bard Street or Cornhill. Commercial interests no less than ter- 
ritorial interests were now overshadowed by industrial interests ; 
the new difficulties, the new problems, the new perils, all sprang 
from what had taken place since William Pitt's time, the por- 
tentous expansion of our industrial system. Between the date of 
Waterloo and the date of the Eeform Act, the power-looms in 
Manchester had increased from two thousand to eighty thousand, 
and the population of Birmingham had grown from ninety to one 
hundred and fifty thousand. The same wonders had come to 
pass in enormous districts over the land. 

Cobden was naturally led to begin his survey of society, as 
such a survey is always begun by the only kind of historian that 
is worth reading. He looked to wealth and its distribution, to 
material well-being, to economic resources, to their administra- 
tion, to the varying direction and relative force of their currents. 



Mi. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 67 

It was here that he found the key to the stability and happiness 
of a nation, in the sense in which stability and happiness are the 
objects of its statesmen. He declined to make any excuse for so 
frequently resolving questions of state policy into matters of 
pecuniary calculation, and he delighted in such business-like 
statements as that the cost of the Mediterranean squadron in 
proportion to the amount of the trade which it was professedly 
employed to protect, was as though a merchant should find that 
his traveller's expenses for escort alone were to amount to 6s. 8d. 
in the pound on his sales. He pointed to the examples in his- 
tory, where some of the greatest and most revolutionary changes 
in the modern world had a fiscal or economic origin. And if 
Cobden had on his visit to Athens seen Finlay, he might have 
learnt from that admirable historian the same lesson on a still 
more imposing scale in the ancient world. He would have been 
told that even so momentous an event in the annals of human 
civilization as the disappearance of rural slavery in Europe, was 
less due to moral or political causes than to such a decline in the 
value of the products of slave-labor as left no profit to the slave- 
owner. From the fall of the Eoman Empire to the mortal decay 
of Spain, and the ruin of the ancient monarchy of France, history 
shows that Cobden was amply justified in laying down the prin- 
ciple that the affairs of a nation come under the same laws of 
common sense and homely wisdom which govern the prosperity 
of a private concern. 

In material well-being he maintained, and rightly maintained, 
that you not only have the surest foundation for a solid fabric of 
morality and enlightenment among your people, but in the case 
of one of our vast and populous modern societies of free men, the 
only sure bulwark against ceaseless disorder and violent convul- 
sion. It was not, therefore, from the side of emotional sympathy 
that Cobden started, but from that positive and scientific feeling 
for good order and right government which is the statesman's 
true motive and deepest passion. The sentimental benevolence 
to which Victor Hugo and Dickens have appealed with such 
power, could give little help in dealing with .the surging uncon- 
trollable tides of industrial and economic forces. Charity, it is 
true, had been an- accepted auxiliary in the thinly peopled socie- 
ties of the middle ages ; but for the great populations and com- 
plex interests of the western world in modern times, it is seen 
that prosperity must depend on policy and institutions, and not 
on the compassion of individuals. 

It is not necessary that we should analyze the contents of 
pamphlets which any one may read through for himself in a few 
hours, and which well deserve to be read through even by those 
who expect their conclusions to be most repugnant. The pam- 



68 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

phlet on England, Ireland, and America is a development of the 
following thought : — A nation is growing up on the other side 
of the Atlantic which by the operation of various causes, duly 
enumerated by the writer, must inevitably at no distant date 
enter into serious competition with our own manufactures. 
Apart from the natural advantages possessed by this new com- 
petitor, there are two momentous disadvantages imposed upon 
the English manufacturer, which tend to disable him in the 
struggle with his formidable rival. These two disadvantages are, 
first, protection and the restriction of commerce ; second, the 
policy of intervention in European feuds. The one loads us with 
a heavy burden of taxation and debt; the other aggravates the 
burden by limiting our use of our own resources. The place of 
Ireland in the argument, after a vivid and too true picture of the 
deplorable condition of that country, is to illustrate, from the most 
striking example within the writer's own knowledge, "the im- 
policy and injustice of the statesmen who have averted their 
faces from this diseased member of the body politic ; and at the 
same time have led us, thus maimed, into the midst of every 
conflict that has occurred on the continent of Europe." In fine, 
the policy of intervention ought to be abandoned, because it has 
created and continues to augment the debt, which shackles us in 
our industrial competition ; because it has in every case been 
either mischievous or futile, and constantly so even in reference 
to its own professed ends ; and because it has absorbed energy 
and resource that were imperiously demanded by every consid- 
eration of -national duty for the improvement of the backward 
and neglected portions of our own realms. 

In the second pamphlet the same principles are applied to the 
special case which the prejudice of the time made urgent. David 
Urquhart, a remarkable man, of prodigious activity, and with a 
singular genius for impressing his opinions upon all sorts of men 
from aristocratic dandies down to the grinders of Sheffield and 
the cobblers of Stafford, had recently published an appeal to Eng- 
land in favor of Turkey. He had furnished the ministers with 
arguments for a policy to which they leaned by the instinct of old 
prejudice, and he had secured all the editors of the newspapers. 
Mr. Urquhart's book was the immediate provocation for Cobclen's 
pamphlets. In the second of them the author dealt with Eussia. 
With Eussia, we were then, as twenty years later and forty years 
later, and, as perhaps some reader of the next generation may 
write on the margin of this page, possibly sixty years later, urged 
with passionate imprecations to go to war in defence of European 
law, the balance of power, and the security of British interests. 

Disclaiming a spirit of partiality for any principle of the for- 
eign or the domestic policy of the Government of St. Petersburg, 



Me. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 69 

Cobden proceeded to examine each of the arguments "by which it 
was then, as now, the fashion to defend an armed interference by 
England between Eussia and Turkey. A free and pointed de- 
scription, first of Turkey, and next of Eussia, and a contrast 
between the creation of St. Petersburg and the decline of Con- 
stantinople, lead up to the propositions : — first, that the advance 
of Eussia to the countries which the Turk once wasted by fire 
and sword, and still wastes by the more deadly processes of mis- 
government, would be a great step in the progress of improvement; 
second, that no step in the progress of improvement and the ad- 
vance of civilization can be inimical to the interests or the welfare 
of Great Britain. What advantage can it be to us, a commercial 
and manufacturing people, that countries placed in the healthiest 
latitudes, and blessed with the finest climate in the world, should 
be retained in a condition which hinders their inhabitants from 
increasing and multiplying ; from extracting a wealth from the 
soil which would enable them to purchase the products of western 
lands ; and so from changing their present poverty-stricken and 
plague-stricken squalor, for the manifold enjoyment of their share 
of all the products of natural resource and human ingenuity. As 
for Eussia, her treatment of Poland was cruel and unjust, but let us 
at least put aside the cant of the sentimental declaimers who, 
amid a cloud of phrases about ancient freedom, national inde- 
pendence, and glorious republic, obscure the fact that the Polish 
nation meant only a body of nobles. About nineteen out of every 
twenty of the inhabitants were serfs without a single civil or 
political right ; one in twenty was a noble ; and the Polish nobles 
were the vainest, most selfish, most cruelly intolerant, most vio- 
lently lawless aristocracy of ancient or modern times. Let us 
join by all means in the verdict of murder, robbery, treason, and 
perjury which every free and honest nation must declare against 
Eussia, Prussia, and Austria for their undissembled wickedness in 
the partition. Let us go further, and admit that the infamy with 
which Burke, Sheridan, and Fox labored to overwhelm the emis- 
saries of British violence in India, was justly earned at the very 
same period by the minions of Eussian despotism in Poland. 
But no honest man who takes the trouble to compare the condi- 
tion of the true people of Poland under Eussia with their condi- 
tion under their own tyrannical nobles a century ago — .and here 
Cobden gives ample means of comparison — will deny that in 
material prosperity and in moral order of life the advance has 
been at least as great as in any other portion of the habitable 
globe. Apart from these historic changes, the Eusso-maniac ideas 
of Eussian power are demonstrably absurd. With certain slight 
modifications, Cobden's demonstration of their absurdity remains 
as valid now as it was forty years ago. 



70 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

The keen and vigorous arguments by which Cobden attacked 
the figment of the balance of power are now tacitly accepted by 
politicians of all schools. Even the most eager partisans of Eng- 
lish intervention in the affairs of other nations now feel them- 
selves bound to show as plausibly as they can, that intervention 
is demanded by some peril to the interests of our own country. 
It is in vain that authors of another school struggle against Cob- 
den's position, that the balance of power is not a fallacy nor an 
imposture, but a chimera, a something incomprehensible, unde- 
scribed, and indescribable. The attempted definitions of it fall to 
pieces at the touch of historic analysis. If we find the smaller 
states still preserving an independent existence, it is owing, Cob- 
den said, not to the watchful guardianship of the balancing sys- 
tem, but to limits set by the nature of things to unduly extended 
dominion ; not only to physical boundaries, but to the more for- 
midable moral impediments to the invader, — "unity of language, 
law, custom, and traditions ; the instinct of patriotism and free- 
dom ; the hereditary rights of rulers ; and, though last, not least, 
that homage to the restraints of justice, which nations and public 
bodies have in all ages avowed, however they may have found 
excuses for evading it." 

That brilliant writer, the historian of the Crimean War, has 
described in a well-known passage what he calls the great Usage 
which forms the safeguard of Europe. This great Usage is the 
accepted obligation of each of the six Powers to protect the 
weak against the strong. But in the same page a limitation is 
added, which takes the very pith and marrow out of this moral 
and chivalrous Usage, and reduces, it to the very commonplace 
principle that nations are bound to take care of themselves. For, 
says the writer, no Power is practically under this obligation, un- 
less its perception of the wrong that has been done is reinforced 
by a sense of its own interests. 1 Then it is the self-interest of 
each nation which is the decisive element in every case of inter- 
vention, and not a general doctrine about the balance of power, or 
an alleged common usage of protecting the weak against the strong ? 
But that is exactly what Cobden started from. His premise was that 
" no government has the right to plunge its people into hostilities, 
except in defence of their own honor and interests." There would 
seem then to be no difference of principle between the military 
and the commercial schools of foreign policy. The trader from 
Manchester and the soldier from Aldershot or Woolwich, without 
touching the insoluble, because only half intelligible, problem of 
the balance of power, may agree to discuss the propriety of a 
given war on the solid ground of national self-interest. Each 

1 Kinglake, vol. i. ch. ii. 



^1t. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 71 

will be affected by professional bias, so that one of them will be 
apt to believe that our self-interest is touched at a point which 
the other will consider too remote to concern us ; but neither can 
claim any advantage over the other as the disinterested champion 
of public law and the rights of Europe. If there is a difference 
deeper than this, it must be that the soldier or the diplomatist of 
the old school has really in his mind a set of opinions as to the 
ends for which a nation exists, and as to the relations of class- 
interests to one another, of such a color that no serious politician 
in modern times would venture openly to avow them. 

If the two theories of the duty of a nation in regard to war are 
examined in this way, we see how unreasonable it is that Cob- 
den's theory of non-intervention should be called selfish by those 
who would be ashamed to base an opposite policy on anything 
else than selfishness. "Our desire," Cobden said, "is to see Po- 
land happy, Turkey civilized, and Eussia conscientious and free : 
it is still more our wish that these ameliorations should be be- 
stowed by the hands of Britain upon her less instructed neigh- 
bors : so far the great majority of our opponents and ourselves are 
agreed. How to accomplish this beneficent purpose, is the ques- 
tion whereon we differ." They would resort, as Washington 
Irving said in a pleasant satire on us, to the cudgel, to promote 
the good of their neighbors and the peace and happiness of the 
world. There is one unanswerable objection to this, Cobden an- 
swered : experience is against it ; it has been tried for hundreds 
of years, and has failed. He proposed to arrive at the same end 
by means of our national example, by remaining at peace, 
vigorously pursuing reforms and improvements, and so present- 
ing that spectacle of wealth, prosperity, power, and invincible 
stability, which reward an era of peace wisely and diligently 
used. Your method, he said, cannot be right, because it assumes 
that you are at all times able to judge what will be good for others 
and the world — which you are not. And even if your judgment 
were infallible, the method would be equally wrong, for you have 
no jurisdiction over other states which authorizes you to do them 
good by force of arms. 

The source of these arguments lay in three convictions. First, 
the government of England must always have its hands full, in 
attending to its domestic business. Second, it can seldom be 
sure which party is in the right in a foreign quarrel, and very 
seldom indeed be sure that the constituencies, ignorant and excit- 
able as they are, will discern the true answer to that perplexing 
question. Finally, the government which keeps most close to 
morality in its political dealings* will find itself in the long-run 
to .have kept most close to the nature of things, and to that 
success which rewards conformity to the nature of things. It 



72 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

followed from such reasoning as this that the author of the pam- 
phlets denounced by anticipation the policy of compelling the 
Chinese by ships of war to open more ports to our vessels. Why, 
he asked in just scorn, should not the ships of war on their way 
out compel the French to transfer the trade of Marseilles to 
Havre, and thus save us the carriage of their wines through the 
Straits of Gibraltar ? Where is the moral difference ? And as to 
Gibraltar itself, he contended, that though the retention of con- 
quered colonies may be regarded with some complacency, because 
they are reprisals for previous depredations by their parent states, 
yet England for fifty years at Gibraltar is a spectacle of brute 
violence, unmitigated by any such excuses. " Upon no principle 
of morality," he went on, " can this unique outrage upon the in- 
tegrity of an ancient, powerful, and renowned nation be justified ; 
the example, if imitated, instead of being shunned universally, 
would throw all the nations of the earth into barbarous anarchy." 
Here as everywhere else we see how wrong is the begetter of 
wrong, for if England had not possessed Gibraltar, she would not 
have been tempted to pursue that turbulent policy in the Medi- 
terranean, which is still likely one day to cost her dear. 1 

Again, the immoral method has failed. Why not try now 
whether commerce will not succeed better than war, in regener- 
ating and uniting the nations whom you would fain improve ? 
Let governments have as little to do with one another as possible, 
and let people begin to have as much to do with one another as 
possible. Of how many cases of intervention by England does 
every Englishman now not admit that they were monstrous and 
inexcusable blunders, and that if we had pursued the alterna- 
tive method of doing the work of government well at home and 
among our dependencies, improving our people, lightening the 
burdens of commerce and manufactures, husbanding wealth, we 
should have augmented our own material power, for which great 
national wealth is only another word ; and we should have taught 
to the governments that had been exhausting and impoverishing 
themselves in war, the great lesson that the way to give con- 
tent, enlightenment, and civil virtues to your people, and a solid 
strength to their government, is to give them peace. It is thus, 
Cobden urged, that the virtues of nations operate both by ex- 
ample and precept ; and such is the power and rank they confer, 
that in the end " states will all turn moralists in self-defence." 

1 It is perhaps not out of place to mention that, several years ago, the present 
writer once asked Mr. Mill's opinion on the question of the possession of Gibraltar. 
His answer was that the really desirable tiling in the case of strong places com- 
manding the entrance to close seas is that they should be in the hands of a Euro- 
pean League. Meanwhile, as the state of international morality is not ripe for 
such a League, England is perhaps of all nations least likely to abuse the posses- 
sion of a strong place of that kind. 



Mt. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 73 

These most admirable pages were no mere rhetoric. They 
represented no abstract preference, but a concrete necessity. The 
writer was able to point to a nation whose example of pacific 
industry, wise care of the education of her young, and abstinence 
from such infatuated intervention as ours in the affairs of others, 
would, as he warned us, one day turn us into moralists in self- 
defence, as one day it assuredly will. It is from the peaceful 
nation in the west, and not from the military nations of the east, 
that danger to our strength will come. "In that portentous truth, 
The , Americas are free, teeming as it does with future change, 
there is nothing that more nearly affects our destiny than the 
total revolution which it dictates to the statesmen of Great Brit- 
ain in the commercial, colonial, and foreign policy of our Govern- 
ment. America is once more the theatre upon which nations are 
contending for mastery ; it is not, however, a struggle for con- 
quest, in which the victor will acquire territorial domain — the 
fight is for commercial supremacy, and will be won by the cheap- 
est." x Yet in the very year in which Cobden thus predicted the 
competition of America, and warned the English Government to 
prepare for it by husbanding the wealth of the country and edu- 
cating its people, the same assembly which was with the utmost 
difficulty persuaded to grant ten thousand pounds for the estab- 
lishment of normal schools, spent actually fifty times as much in 
interfering in the private quarrels of two equally brutal dynastic 
factions in Spain. Our great case of intervention, between the 
rupture of the peace of Amiens and the battle of Waterloo, had 
left a deep and lasting excitability in the minds of Englishmen. 
They felt that if anything w T ere going wrong in any part of the 
world, it must be owing to a default of duty in the British Gov- 
ernment. One writer, for instance, drew up a serious indictment 
against the Whigs in 1834, on the ground that they had only 

1 "Looking to the natural endowments of the North American continent — as 
superior to Europe as the latter is to Africa — with an almost immeasurable extent 
of river navigation — its boundless expanse of the most fertile soil in the world, 
and its inexhaustible mines of coal, iron, lead, &c. : — looking at these, and remem- 
bering the quality and position of a people universally instructed and perfectly free, 
and possessing, as a consequence of these, a new-born energy and vitality very far 
surpassing the character of any nation of the old world — the writer reiterates the 
moral of his former work, by declaring his conviction that it is from the west, 
rather than from the east, that danger to the supremacy of Great Britain is to be 
apprehended; — that it is from the silent and peaceful rivalry of American com- 
merce, the growth of its manufactures, its rapid progress in internal improvements, 
the superior education of its people, and their economical and pacific government 
— that it is from these, and not from the barbarous policy or the impoverishing 
armaments of Russia, that the grandeur of our commercial and national prosperity 
is endangered. And the writer stakes his reputation upon the prediction, that, in 
less than twenty years, this will be the sentiment of the people of England generally ; 
and that the same conviction will be forced upon the Government of the country." If 
Cobden had allowed fifty years, instead of twenty, for the fulfilment of his predic- 
tion, he would perhaps have been safe. 



74 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1835-36. 

passed a Eeform Bill and a Poor Law Bill at home, while abroad 
the Dutch question was undecided ; the French were still at An- 
cona ; Don Carlos was fighting in Spain ; Don Miguel was pre- 
paring for a new conflict in Portugal ; Turkey and Egypt were at 
daggers drawn ; Switzerland was quarrelling about Italian refu- 
gees ; Frankfort was occupied by Prussian troops, in violation of 
the treaty of Vienna ; Algiers was being made a French colony, 
in violation of French promises made in 1829 ; ten thousand Pol- 
ish nobles were still proscribed and wandering all over Europe ; 
French gaols were full of political offenders. This pretty list of 
wrongs it was taken for granted that an English ministry and 
English armies should make it their first business to set right. 
As Cobden said, if such ideas prevailed, the Whig government 
would leave Providence nothing to attend to. Yet this was only 
the reductio ad absurdum of that excitability about foreign affairs 
which the long war had left behind. The vulgar kind of patri- 
otic sentiment leads its professors to exult in military interven- 
tions even so indescribably foolish as this. What Cobden sought 
was to nourish that nobler and more substantial kind of patriot- 
ism, which takes a pride in the virtue and enlightenment of our 
own citizens, in the wisdom and success of our institutions, in 
the beneficence of our dealings with less advanced possessions, 
and in the lofty justice and independence of our attitude to other 
nations. 

No one claims for Cobden that he was the first statesman who 
had dreamed the dream and seen the vision of a great pacification. 
Everybody has heard of the Grand Design of Henry the Fourth 
of France, with its final adjustment of European alliances, and its 
august Senate of the Christian Republic. In the eighteenth cen- 
tury, so rich as it was in great humane ideas, we are not surprised 
to find more than one thinker and more than one statesman 
enamored of the policy of peaceful industry, from the Abbe de 
Saint Pierre, who denounced Lewis XIV. for seeking aggrandize- 
ment abroad while destroying prosperity at home, down to Kant, 
who wrote an essay on perpetual peace ; and to the French 
Encyclopedists, who were a standing peace party down to the 
outbreak of the Revolution. Apart from these Utopias of a too 
hopeful philosophy, there is one practical statesman whom the 
historian of political opinion in England may justly treat as a 
precursor of Cobden's school. This is Lord Shelburne, the politi- 
cal instructor of the younger Pitt. He was the first powerful 
actor in our national affairs, in whom the great school of the 
Economists found a sincere disciple. It was to Morellet, the 
writer in the Encyclopaedia and the friend of Turgot, rather even 
than to Adam Smith and Tucker, that Shelburne professed to owe 
those views on peace and international relations which appeared 



JSr. 31-32.] THE TWO PAMPHLETS. 75 

in the negotiations of his government with France after the war 
with the American colonies, and which, alas, after a deplorable 
interval of half a century, the next person to enforce as the foun- 
dation of our political system, was the author of the two Man- 
chester pamphlets. In the speech which closed his career as a 
minister (1783), Shelburne had denounced monopoly as always 
unwise, but for no nation under heaven so unwise as for England. 
With more industry, he cried, with more enterprise, with more 
capital than any trading nation in the world, all that we ought 
to covet upon earth is free trade and open markets. His defence 
of the pacific policy as. most proper for this country was as ener- 
getic as his enthusiasm for free trade, and he never displayed 
more vigor and conviction than when he attacked Pitt for allow- 
ing himself — and this was before the war with the French 
Eepublic — to be drawn again into the fatal policy of European 
intervention in defence of the integrity of the Turkish empire. 

The reason why Shelburne's words were no more than a passing 
and an unheeded voice, while the teaching of Cobden's pamphlets 
stamped a deep impression on men's minds, — which time, in spite 
of inevitable phases of reaction and the temporary recrudescence 
of bad opinions, has only made more definite, — is the decisive 
circumstance which has already been sufficiently dwelt upon, that 
the huge expansion of the manufacturing interests had, when 
Cobden appeared, created a powerful public naturally favorable 
to the new principles, and raised what would otherwise have been 
only the tenets of a school into the programme of a national 
party. 

As we shall see when we come to the Crimean War, the new 
principles did not at once crush out the old ; it was not to be 
expected by any one who reflects on the strength of prejudice, 
especially prejudice supported by the consciousness of an honor- 
able motive, that so sudden a change should take place. But the 
pamphlets are a great landmark in the history of politics in Eng- 
land, and they are still as well worth reading as they ever were. 
Some of the statements are antiquated ; the historical criticism is 
sometimes open to doubt ; there are one or two mistakes. But 
they are mostly like the poet's, who spoke of " i miei non falsi 
errori." If time has weakened their literal force, it has confirmed 
their real significance. 

In a personal biography, it is perhaps not out of place to dwell 
in conclusion on a point in the two pamphlets, which is of very 
secondary importance compared with their political teaching, and 
yet which has an interest of its own ; I mean the literary excel- 
lence of these performances. They have a ringing clearness, a 
genial vivacity, a free and confident mastery of expression, which 



76 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837. 

can hardly be surpassed. Cobden is a striking instance against 
a favorite plea of the fanatics of Latin and Greek. They love to 
insist that a collegian's scholarship is the great source and foun- 
tain of a fine style. It would be nearer the truth to say that our 
classical training is more aptly calculated to destroy the qualities 
of good writing and fine speaking, than any other system that 
could have been contrived. Those qualities depend principally, 
in men of ordinary endowment, upon a certain large freedom and 
spontaneousness, and next upon a strong habit of observing things 
before words. These are exactly the habits of mind which our way 
of teaching, or rather of not teaching, Latin and Greek inevitably 
chills, and represses in any one in whom literary faculty is not abso- 
lutely irrepressible. What is striking in Cobden is that after a lost 
and wasted childhood, a youth of drudgery in a warehouse, and an 
early manhood passed amid the rather vulgar associations of the 
commercial traveller, he should at the age of one and thirty have 
stepped forth the master of a written style, which in boldness, 
freedom, correctness, and persuasive moderation, was not surpassed 
by any man then living. He had taken pains with his mind, and 
had been a diligent and extensive reader, but he had never 
studied language for its own sake. 

It was fortunate for him that, instead of blunting the sponta- 
neous faculty of expression by minute study of the verbal pecu- 
liarities of a Lysias or an Isocrates, he should have gone to the 
same school of active public interests and real things in which 
those fine orators had in their different degrees acquired so happy 
a union of .homeliness with purity, and of amplitude with measure. 
These are the very qualities that we notice in Cobden's earliest 
pages ; they evidently sprang from the writer's singular directness 
of eye, and eager and disinterested sincerity of social feeling, 
undisturbed as both these gifts fortunately were by the vices of 
literary self-consciousness. 



CHAPTEE V. 

LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 

A few weeks after Cobden's return home from the East, William 
the Fourth died (June 20), and the accession of Queen Victoria 
to the throne was followed by a general election. • Eor some 
months Cobden's name had been before the politicians of Stock- 
port, and while he was abroad, he had kept his brother constantly 



Mt.SS.'] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 77 

instructed how to proceed in the various contingencies of elec- 
tioneering. Frederick Oobden seems even at this early stage to 
have expressed some not unnatural anxiety lest public life should 
withdraw the indispensable services of his brother from their busi- 
ness. He had even remonstrated against any further pamphlets. 
" Do not fear," replied Eichard Cobden, " I am not author-mad. 
But I have written a letter to the editor of the Globe, in which," 
— and so forth. 1 He was in no sense author-mad, but still he 
was overflowing with thoughts and arguments and a zeal for the 
commonwealth, which made publication in one shape or another 
as much a necessity to him, as it is a necessity to a poet or an 
apostle. In the same letter, in answer to a friend's warning that 
he should not spoil his holiday by anxiety as to affairs at home, 
he said : — "I am not, I assure him, giving one moment's thought 
to the Stockport electors. The worthy folks may do as they 
please. They can make me M. P. by their favor, but they cannot 
mar my happiness if they reject me. It is i the cause ' with which 
I am in some degree identified, that makes me anxious about the 
result. Personally, as you well know, I would rather have my 
freedom for two years more." . . . . " Let me say once for all, in 
reference to the Stockport affair, that I shall be quite happy, 
whichever way the die falls. You know me better than any other 
person, and I am sure you will believe that my peace or happi- 
ness does not depend upon external circumstances of this or any 
similar nature." 2 

Yet even in this free mood, Cobden knew his own mind, as he 
never failed to do, and he intended to be elected if possible. He 
belonged to the practical type, with whom to have once decided 
upon a course becomes in itself a strong independent reason for 
continuing in it. " One word as to your own private feelings," 
he writes to his brother, " which may from many causes be rather 
inclined to lead you to wish that my entrance into public life 
were delayed a little. I shall only say that on this head it is now 
too late to parley ; it is now useless to waver, or to shrink from the 
realization of that which we had resolved upon and entered upon, 
not as children, but as men knowing that action must follow such 
resolves. Your temperament and mine are unequal, but in this 
matter I shall only remind you that my feelings are more deeply 
implicated than your own, and that whilst I can meet with an ade- 
quate share of fortitude any failure which comes from insuperable 
causes, whatever may be the object I have in view, yet if in this 
case my defeat should spring from your timidity or sensitiveness 
(shall I say disinclination V), it would afflict me severely, and I 
fear lastingly." 3 

1 To F. Cobden. Nov. 11, 1836. 2 To F. C, Jan. 4, 1837. 

8 To F. C. Jan. 28, 1837. 



78 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837. 

As the election drew nearer, Cobden was overtaken by that 
eager desire to succeed, which gradually seizes even the most 
philosophical candidate as the passion of battle waxes hotter 
around him. He threw himself into the struggle with all his 
energy. It is historically interesting to know what Liberal elec- 
tors were thinking about in those days. We find that they asked 
their candidate his opinion as to the property qualification for 
Members of Parliament, Primogeniture, the Poor Law Amend- 
ment Act, and the Factory Question. The last of the list was 
probably the most important, for Cobden had taken the trouble 
many months before to set out his opinions on that subject in a 
letter to the chairman of his committee. The matter remains of 
vital importance in our industrial system to the present time, and 
is still, in the face of the competition of other nations, the object 
of a controversy which is none the less alive in the region of 
theory, because the legislature has decided it in one way in the 
region of practice. As that is so, it is interesting still to know 
Cobden's earliest opinions on the matter ; and I have therefore 
printed at the end of the volume the letter that Cobden wrote, in 
the autumn of 1836, on the restriction by Parliament of the 
hours of labor in factories. 1 

What he said comes to this, that for plain physical reasons no 
child ought to be put to work in a cotton mill so early as the age 
of thirteen, but whatever restrictions on the hours of labor might 
be desirable, it was not for the legislature to impose them : it was 
for the workmen to insist upon them, relying not on Parliament, 
but on their own action. A workman, by saving the twenty 
pounds that would carry him across the Atlantic, could make 
himself as independent of his employer, as the employer is inde- 
pendent of him ; and in this independence he would be free, with- 
out the emasculating interference of Parliament, to drive his own 
bargain as to how many hours he would work. In meeting his 
committee at Stockport, Cobden repeated his conviction that the 
factory operatives had it in their power to shorten the hours of 
labor without the aid of Parliament, but to infant labor, as he had 
said before, he would afford the utmost possible protection. He 
laughed at the mock philanthropy of the Tory landowners, who 
took so lively an interest in the welfare of the factory population, 
and yet declined to suffer the slightest relaxation of the corn 
laws, though these did more to degrade and pauperize the labor- 
ing classes, by doubling the price of food and limiting employ- 
ment, than any other evil of which they had to complain. 

Whether these views alienated any of those who would other- 
wise have supported him, we do not know. Probably the most 

1 See Appendix, Note A. 



^t. 33.] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 79 

effective argument against Cobden's candidature was the fact that 
he was a stranger to the borough. On the day of election he was 
found to be at the bottom of the poll. 1 He wrote to his uncle, 
Mr. Cole, explaining his defeat : — 

" The cause of failure was that there was too much confidence on 
the part of the Reformers. We were too satisfied, and neglected 
those means of insuring the election which the Tories used, and 
by their activity at Stockport as elsewhere they gained the vic- 
tory. If the battle had to be fought again to-morrow, I could 
win. To revenge themselves for the loss of their man, the Radi- 
cals have since the election adopted a system of exclusive dealing 
{not countenanced by me), and those publicans and shopkeepers 
who voted for the Major now find their counters deserted. The 
consequence is that the Reformers place printed placards over their 
shops, Voted for Golden, inscribed in large characters, and the 
butchers and greengrocers in the market-place cry out from their 
stalls, Cobden beef, Cobden potatoes, etc. So you see I have not 
lost ground, by my failure at the poll, with the unwashed. But 
the truth is I am quite reconciled to the result. There are many 
considerations which make me conclude it is all for the best." 2 

His friends made arrangements for presenting him with a 
piece of plate, and seventeen thousand subscribers of one penny 
each raised the necessary fund For some reason, Daniel O'Con- 
nell was invited to be present. He and Cobden drove together 
in an open carriage to Stockport (November 13, 1837), where 
they addressed an immense meeting in the open air, and after- 
wards spoke at a public dinner. To the great Liberator the 
reporter of the day generously accords three columns, while Cob- 
den's words were condensed into that scanty space which is the 
common lot of orators who have won no spurs. His chief topic 
seems to have been the ballot; he declared that, without that 
protection, household suffrage, the repeal of the corn laws, the 
shortening of parliaments, would all be insecure benefits. There 
is in this a certain inversion of his usual order of thinking about 
the proper objects of political solicitude, for he commonly paid 
much less heed to the machinery, than to the material objects of 
government. 

It was quite as well for Cobden's personal interests that he 
was left free for a little time longer to attend to his business. 
The rather apprehensive character of his brother made him little 
able to carry on the trade in an intrepid and enterprising spirit, 
and at every step the judgment, skill, and energy of a stronger 
head were wanted. At this time the scale of the business, which 

1 Henry Marsland (Reformer) 480 ; Major Marsland (Tory) 471 ; Richard Cobden 
(Reformer) 418. 

2 To Mr. Cole. Sept. 6, 1837. 



80 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838. 

had started from such small beginnings, had become so extensive 
that Cobden estimated the capital in it as no less than 80,000/., 
with a credit in acceptances of at least 25,000/. : he represented 
the turn-over as ISOjOOO/. 1 In 1836 the books show that the 
net profits of the firm had exceeded 23,000/. for the year; and 
though the trade was so fluctuating that the first half of the fol- 
lowing year only showed a profit of 4000/., Cobclen's sanguine 
temperament led him to speak as if their capital were being regu- 
larly augmented at the rate of 2000/. a month. We can easily 
understand Frederick Cobden's unwillingness to be left to his 
own resources in the administration of a business of this size, and 
his brother promised repeatedly not to throw so heavy a responsi- 
bility upon him. From the time of Cobden's return from the 
East they had both nourished the idea of separating from the 
London firm, as well as from the Sabden factory, and the idea re- 
mained in their minds for a couple of years. Then, as we shall 
presently see, it was carried into execution. 

Cobden, however, had made up his mind after the Stockport 
election that to push his material fortunes was not to be the 
great aim of his life. " I am willing to give a few years of entire 
exertion," he wrote in 1838, " towards making the separation 
successful to ourselves. But at the same time all my exertions 
will be with an eye to make myself independent of all business 
claims on my time and anxieties. Towards this, Henry and 
Charles [their two younger brothers] will for their own sakes, I 
expect, contribute. And I hope and expect in five years they 
will be in a situation to force me out of the concern, a willing 
exile. At all events I am sure there will not want talent of some 
kind about us, to take advantage of my determination to be at 
ease, and have some time for leisure to take care of my health, 
and indulge tastes which are in some degree essential to my 
happiness. With reference to health, both you and I must not 
omit reasonable precautions ; we are not made for rivalling Me- 
thusaleh, and if we can by care stave off the grim enemy for 
twenty years longer, we shall do more than nature intended for 
us. At. all events let us remember that to live usefully is far 
better than living long. And do not let us deprive ourselves of 
the gratification at last, a gratification which the selfish never 
have, that we have not embittered our whole lives with heaping 
up money, but that we have given a part of our time to more' 
rational and worthy exertions." 1 

Even now, when the indispensable work of laying a base of 
material prosperity was still incomplete, and when his own busi- 
ness might well have occupied his whole attention, he was always 

1 Letter to F. Cobden. Feb. 24, 1837. 

2 To F. C. Oct. 26, 1838. 



JErr. 34.] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 81 

thinking much more earnestly about the interests of others than 
his own. The world of contemporaries and neighbors seldom 
values or loves this generous and unfamiliar spirit, and the tone 
of Manchester was in this respect not much higher than that of 
the rest of the world. It cannot surprise us to learn that for 
some time Cobden made no great progress in Manchester society. 
He was extremely self-possessed and self-confident, and as a con- 
sequence he was often thought to be wanting in the respect that 
is due from a young man to his elders, and from a man who has 
a fortune to make towards those who have made it. His dash, 
his freedom of speech, his ardor for new ideas, were taken for 
signs of levity; and a certain airy carelessness about dress marked 
a rebel against the minor conventions of the world. The patient 
endurance of mere ceremonial was at this time impossible to him. 
He could not be brought to attend the official dinners given by 
the Lord of the Manor. When he was selected to serve as as- 
sessor at the Court Leet for manorial purposes, though the occa- 
sion brought him into contact with men who might have been 
useful to him in his business, he treated the honor very easily. 
He sat restlessly on his bench, and then strolled away after an 
hour or two had shown him that the proceedings were without 
real significance. He could not even understand the urgency of 
more prudent friends that he should return. It was not conceit 
nor conscious defiance, but the incapacity inborn in so active and 
serious an intelligence, of contentedly muffling itself even for 
half a day under idle forms. He was born a political man ; his 
most real interests in the world were wholly in affairs of govern- 
ment and institution, and his dominant passion was a passion 
for improvement. His whole mind was possessed by the high 
needs and great opportunities of society, as the minds of some 
other men have been possessed by the aspirations of religion, and 
he had as little humor for the small things of worldly punctilio 
as Calvin or as Knox may have had. 

I have already described the relation of some of Cobden's ideas 
to those of George Combe. It was, above all other things, for the 
sake of the prospect which it held out of supplying a sure basis 
and a trustworthy guide in the intricate and encumbered path of 
national education, that he was drawn for a time to Combe's sys- 
tem of phrenology. His letters during the years of which we are 
now speaking abound pretty freely in the terms of that crude 
catalogue, but with him they are less like the jargon of the 
phrenological fanatic of those days, than the good-humored lan- 
guage of a man who believes in a general way that there is some- 
thing in it. In 1835 he had been instrumental in forming a 
phrenological society in Manchester, and the first of a series of 
letters to Combe is one in 1836, pressing him to deliver a course 

6 



82 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838- 

of lectures in that town. It is interesting as an illustration of 
the amazing growth both in rational tolerance and scientific opin- 
ion, when we compare the very moderate heterodoxy of phre- 
nology with the doctrines that in our own day are publicly dis- 
cussed without alarm. " The Society which we profess to have 
here," Cobden writes, " is not well supported, and for nearly a 
twelvemonth " it can hardly be said to have manifested many 
signs of existence. 

"The causes are various why phrenology languishes, but 
probably the primary one may be sought in that feeling of fash- 
ionable timidity among the leading medical men and others who, 
although professing to support it privately, have not yet openly 
avowed themselves disciples of the science of Spurzheim and Gall. 
But phrenology is rapidly disenthralling itself from that ' cold 
obstruction' of ridicule and obloquy, which it has, in common 
with every other reform and improvement, had to contend against, 
and probably the mind of the community of Manchester presents 
at this moment as fine a field, in which to sow the seeds of 
instruction by means of a course of lectures by the author 
of The Constitution of Man, as could be found anywhere in the 

world The difficulty of religious prejudice exists here, and 

it requires delicate handling. Thanks, however, to the pursuits 
of the neighborhood, to the enlightening chemical and mechanical 
studies with which our industry is allied, and to the mind- 
invigorating effect of an energetic devotion to commerce, we are 
not, as at Liverpool, in a condition to tolerate rampant exhibitions 

of intolerance here The High Church party stands sullenly 

aloof from all useful projects, and the severer sectarians restrict 
themselves here, as elsewhere, to their own narrow sphere of 
exertion, but the tone of public opinion in Manchester is superior 
to the influence of either of these extremes. How I pity you in 
Scotland, the only country in the world in which a wealthy and 
intelligent middling class submits to the domination of a spiritual 
tyranny." 1 

Though he was intolerant of the small politics of the Borough- 
reeve and the Constables, Cobden did not count it as small politics 
to agitate with might and main on behalf of the incorporation of 
the great city to which he belonged. His large comprehension 
of the greater needs of civilization and his country never at any 
time in his life dulled his interest in the need that lay close to his 
hand. The newspapers of the time show him to have been the 
moving spirit in the proceedings for incorporation, from the first 
requisition to the Borough-reeve and Constable to call a meeting 
of the rate-payers (February 3, 1838) , down to the final triumph. 

1 To George Combe. Aug. 23, 1836. 



.Et.34.] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 83 

The Municipal Eeform Act had been passed by Lord Mel- 
bourne's Government in 1835, on the return of the Whigs to 
power after the short ministry of Sir Eobert Peel. It was the 
proper complement to the greater Eeform of 1832. By extending 1 
the principle of self-government from national to local affairs, 
it purified and enlarged the organs of administrative power, and 
furnished new fields of discipline in the habits of the good citizen. 
In 1833 Brougham had introduced a measure for immediately 
incorporating such towns as Manchester and Birmingham, and 
directly conferring local representative government upon them by 
Act of Parliament. But between 1833 and 1835 things had 
happened which quenched these spirited methods. A process 
which had been imperative in 1833, had by 1835 dwindled down 
to the permissive. Places were allowed to have charters, on 
condition that a majority of the rate-payers, being inhabitant 
householders, expressed their desire for incorporation by petition 
to the Crown in Council. A muddy sea of corruption and chicane 
was stirred up. All the vested interests of obstruction were on 
the alert. The close and self-chosen members of the Court Leet, 
and the Streets Commission, and .the Town Hall Commission, 
could not endure the prospect of a system in which the public 
business would no longer be done in the dark, and the public 
money no longer expended without responsibility to those who 
paid it. The battle between privilege and popular representation 
which had been fought on the great scene at Westminster in 1832, 
was now resumed and fought out on the pettier stage of the new 
boroughs. The classes who had lost the power of bad government 
on a large national scale, tried hard to retain it on a small local 
scale. The low-minded and corrupt rabble of freemen and pot- 
wallopers united with those who were on principle the embittered 
enemies of all improvement, the noisy, inglorious Eldons of the 
provincial towns, and did their best to thwart the petitions. The 
Tories and the Eesiduum, to use the phrase of a later day, made 
that alliance which Cobden calls unholy, but which rests on the 
natural affinities of bigotry and ignorance. The Whig, as usual, 
was timid and uncomfortable ; he went about murmuring that a 
charter was unnecessary, and muttered something about expense. 

" When your former kind and friendly letter reached me," Cob- 
den writes to Tait, the Edinburgh publisher, " I was engaged 
before the Commissioners, employed in exposing the trickery of 
the Tories in getting up their petition against the incorporation 
of our borough. For three weeks I was incessantly occupied at 
the Town Hall. By dint of hard work and some expense, we got 
at the filth in their Augean stable, and laid their dirty doings 
before the public eye. I believe now there is little doubt of our 
being chartered before the next November election, and it will be 



84 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838. 

a new era for Manchester when it shakes off the feudal livery 
of Sir Oswald Mosley, to put on the democratic garb of the 
Municipal Reform Act. 

" So important do I consider the step for incorporating the 
borough, that I have been incessantly engaged at the task for 
the last six months. I began by writing a letter of which I 
circulated five thousand copies, with a view of gaining the Eadicals 
by showing the popular provisions of the Act. Will you credit 
it — the low, blackguard leaders of the Eadicals joined with the 
Tories and opposed us. The poor-law lunatics raised their de- 
mented yell, and we were menaced with nothing but defeat and 
annihilation at the public meeting. However, we sent a circular 
to everyone of the 101. parliamentary electors who support liberal 
men, calling upon them to aid us at the public meeting, and they 
came forward to our rescue. The shopocracy carried the day. 
Two or three of the Tory-Radical leaders now entered the service 
of the Tories, with a view to obtain the signature of their fel- 
lows to a petition against incorporation. They pretended to get 
upwards of thirty thousand names, for which they were well paid. 
But the voting has shown that four fifths were forgeries. So much 
for the unholy alliance of Tory and Radical ! 

" I mention all this as my best excuse for not having written 
to you, or for you, for so many months. What with going twice 
to London on deputations, and fighting the battle with two ex- 
treme political parties in Manchester, I have been so constantly 
engaged in action, that I have not had time for theorizing upon 
any topic. Still I have not abandoned the design of using my 
pen for your magazine. I have half collected materials for an 
article on convulsions in trade and banking, which when published 
will probably attract some notice from people engaged in such 
pursuits." x 

" Not having received a word of news, good or bad, from you 
since I came here," he wrote to his brother, " I conclude that nothing 
particularly important can have occurred. You will have heard, 
I dare say, the result of our interview with the Lords of the 
Council. There is, I think, not a shadow of doubt of the ultimate 
result of the application, but I am not pleased with the Whig 
Ministry's mode of proceeding in these Corporation affairs. It is 
quite certain that they are willing we should be put to quite as 
much trouble by the Tories, as that party is able to impose on us. 
In the case of the Sheffield petition, I do not think the Charter 
will be granted at all, merely because the Tories have contrived 
to get a greater number of ragamuffins to sign against it, than 
have subscribed for the Charter. I saw one of the deputation 

l To Mr. W. Tait, of Ediribiorgh. July 3, 1838. 



^T. 34.] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 85 

to-day, who is quite disgusted with the whole set ; and Scholefield 
of Birmingham told me that if he and Attwood had not bullied 
the Whigs, and threatened to vote against them, the Birmingham 
petition would not have been acceded to. They are a bad lot, and 
the sooner they go out, the better for the real reformers." * 

" That truckling subserviency," he writes later in this year, 
" of the Ministry to the menaces of the Tories, is just in character 
with the conduct of the Whigs, on all questions great or little. 
Without principle or political honesty, they are likewise destitute 
of any atom of the courage or independence which honesty can 
inspire, and the party which bullies them most will be sure to 
command their obedience. In the matter of municipal institu- 
tions their hearts are against us. C. P. Thomson * told us plainly 
that he did not like local self-government, and are his Whig col- 
leagues more liberal than he ? I am sorry I am not at home to 
give a helping hand to my old colleagues. I will never desert, 
and if the matter be still in abeyance when I get back, I shall be 
ready and willing to give my assistance." 

In the autumn of 1838, Lancashire was disturbed by torchlight 
meetings, destruction of property, and other formidable proceed- 
ings, under the lead of the Chartists, — Stephens, Oastler, and 
others. This superficial outbreak had no alarms for Cobden. In 
a vein which is thoroughly characteristic of the writer, he pro- 
ceeds in the letter from which I have been quoting : — 

"As respects general politics, I see nothing in the present 
radical outbreak to cause alarm, or make one dread the fate of 
liberalism. On the contrary, it is preferable to the apathy of the 
three years when prosperity (or seemingly so) made Tories of all. 
Nor do I feel at all inclined to give up politics in disgust, as you 
seem to do, because of the blunders of the Eadicals. They are 
rash and presumptuous, or ignorant if you will, but are not the 
governing factions something worse ? Is not selfishness, or sys- 
tematic plunder, or political knavery, as odious as the blunders of 
democracy ? We must choose between the party which governs 
upon an exclusive or monopoly principle, and the people who seek, 
though blindly perhaps, the good of the vast majority. If they 
be in error we must try to put them right, if rash, to moderate ; 

but never, never talk of giving up the ship / think the 

scattered elements may yet be rallied round the question of the com 
laws. It appears to me that a moral and even a religious spirit 

1 To F. W. Cobden. London, May 4, 1838. 

2 Charles Poulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, was one of the repre- 
sentatives of Manchester from 1832 to 1839. On the reconstruction of the Whig 
Government under Lord Melbourne, he was appointed to be President of the Board 
of Trade — a post which he afterwards gave up, in order to go out as Governor- 
General of Canada. As we shall see in a later chapter, he has a place in the apos- 
tolic succession of the Board of Trade, after Huskisson and Deacon Hume. 



86 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838. 

may be infused into that topic, and if agitated in the same manner 
that the question of slavery has been, it ivill be irresistible. I can 
give this question a great lift when I return, by publishing the 
result of my inquiries into the state of things on the Continent, 
and particularly with reference to the Prussian Union." 1 

Yet Cobden had in his heart no illusions on the subject of his 
countrymen, or their special susceptibility to either light or en- 
thusiasm. He was well aware of the strong vault of bronzed 
prejudice which man mistakes for the luminous firmament of 
truth, and with him as with the philosophic reformers in France 
on the eve of the Ee volution, the foundation of his hope lay in a 
peuple eclair e, the enlightenment of the population. 

"Do not let your zeal for the cause of democracy," Cobden 
wrote to Tait, the Edinburgh bookseller, " deceive you as to the 
fact of the opaque ignorance in which the great bulk of the people 
of England are wrapt. If you write for the masses politically, 
and write soundly and honestly, they will not be able at present 
to appreciate you, and consequently will not support you. You 
cannot pander to the new Poor-law delusion, or mix up the Corn 
laws with the Currency quackeries of Attwood. Nothing but 
these cries will go down with the herd at present. There is an 
obvious motive about certain agitators' movements. They hold 
up impracticabilities; their stock in trade will not fall short. 
Secondly, these prevent intelligent people from joining said agi- 
tators, who would be likely to supersede them in the eyes of their 
followers. There is no remedy for all this but improved education. 
Such as the tail and the body are, such will be the character of 
the head. Nature does not produce such monsters as an ignorant 
or vicious community, and virtuous and wise leaders. In Scot- 
land you are better off because you are better educated. The 
great body of the English peasants are not a jot advanced in in- 
tellect since the days of their Saxon ancestors. 

" I hope you will join us in a cry for schoolmasters as a first 

step to Radicalism Whilst I would caution you against 

too much political stuff in your magazine, let me pray you to 
strike a blow for us for education. I have unbounded faith in 
the* people, and would risk universal suffrage to-morrow in prefer- 
ence to the present franchise. But we shall never obtain even an 
approach towards such a change, except by one of two paths, — 
Revolution or the Schoolhouse. By the latter means we shall 
make permanent reform; by the former, we shall only effect con- 
vulsive and transient changes, to fall back again like Italy, or 
Spain, into despotism or anarchy." 2 

In August, 1838, Cobden again started for a month's tour in Ger- 

1 To F. C. Oct. 5, 1838. 2 To W. Tait. Aug. 17, 1838. 



Mt. 34.] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 87 

many, partly perhaps to appease that spirit of restlessness which 
made monotony the worst kind of fatigue, and partly to increase 
his knowledge of the economic condition of other countries. 
" What nonsense," he once exclaimed, " is uttered even by the 
cleverest men when they get upon that least of all understood, 
and yet most important of all topics, the Trade of this country ! 
And yet every dunce or aristocratic blockhead fancies himself 
qualified by nature to preach upon this complicated and difficult 
question." J He was careful not to lay himself open to the same 
reproach of trusting to the light of nature for wide and accurate 
knowledge, and he turned his holiday in the countries of the Elbe 
and the Rhine to good account by getting together, as he said, 
some ammunition about the corn laws. This subject was now 
beginning definitely to take the chief place in his interests. 

There remains among his correspondence with his brother dur- 
ing this trip, one rather remarkable letter, the doctrine of which 
many of my readers will certainly resent, and it is indeed open to 
serious criticism. The doctrine, however, is too characteristic of 
a peculiarity in Cobden's social theory, for me to omit this strong 
illustration of it ; characteristic, I mean, of his ruling willingness, 
shown particularly in his dealings with the Emperor of the French, 
in 1860, and on some other occasions, to treat political considera- 
tions as secondary to those of social and economic well-being. 

" Although," he says, " a very rapid one, my journey has given 
me a better insight into German character and the prospects of 
central Europe than I could have ever gained from the eyes of 
others. Prussia must be looked upon as a rising state, whose 
greatness will be based upon the Commercial League [the Zoll- 
verein]. 2 .... The effect of the League must inevitably be to 
throw the preponderating influence over thirty millions of people 
into the hands of the Cabinet of Berlin. By the terms of the 
Union, the money is to be collected and paid by Prussia ; a very 
little financial skill will thus very easily make the smaller states 
the pensioners of the paymaster. Already, I am told, Prussia has 
been playing this game ; she is said to be two millions of dollars 
a year out of pocket by her office, owing to her having guaranteed 
the smaller partners certain amounts of revenue. Besides the 
power that such a post of treasurer will confer upon Prussia, 
other causes must tend to weaken the influence of the lesser 

i To W. Tait. May 5, 1837. 

2 The Zollverein or Customs Union had heen planned as far back as 1818, hut it 
was not until 1833 that the treaty was signed which bound most of the German 
states, except Austria, to a policy of free trade among themselves, while protective 
duties were maintained against foreign nations. Poulett Thomson, and other 
English officials of the same liberal stamp, rightly regarded the new system without 
apprehension, for it recognized the expediency of abolishing commercial restrictions 
over a great area, though the area was not quite great enough. 



88 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838. 

states' governments. A common standard of weights and meas- 
ures, as well as of money, is preparing, and these being assimi- 
lated, and the revenue received from Prussia, whose literature 
and modes will become the standard for the other portions of 
Germany, what shall prevent this entire family of one common 
language, and possessing perfect freedom of intercourse, from 
merging into one nation ? In fact, they are substantially one 
nation now, and their remaining subdivisions will become by-and- 
by only imaginary ; and some Eadicals will hereafter propose, as 
we have done in Manchester, to get rid of the antiquated boun- 
daries of the townships of Hesse, Oldenburg, etc., and place the 
whole under one Common Council at Berlin. There are heads in 
Berlin which have well reflected upon this, and their measures 
will not disappoint their country. 

" I very much suspect that at present, for the great mass of the 
people, Prussia possesses the best government in Europe. I would 
gladly give up my taste for talking politics to secure such a state 
of things in England. Had our people such a simple and economi- 
cal government, so deeply imbued with justice to all, and aiming 
so constantly to elevate mentally and morally its population, 
how much better would it be for the twelve or fifteen millions in 
the British Empire, who, while they possess no electoral rights, 
are yet persuaded they are freemen, and who are mystified into 
the notion that they are not political bondmen, by that great 
juggle of the 'English Constitution ' — a thing of monopolies, and 
Church-craft, and sinecures, armorial hocus-pocus, primogeniture, 
and pageantry ! The Government of Prussia is the mildest phase 
in which absolutism ever presented itself. The king, a good and 
just man, has, by pursuing a systematic course of popular educa- 
tion, shattered the sceptre of despotism even in his own hand, 
and has forever prevented his successors from gathering up the 

fragments You have sometimes wondered what becomes 

of the thousands of learned men who continually pass from the 
German universities, whilst so few enter upon mercantile pur- 
suits. Such men hold all the official and Government appoint- 
ments ; and they do not require 1000/. a year to be respectable or 
respected in Prussia. Habits of ostentatious expenditure are not 
respectable there. The king dines at two, rides in a plain car- 
riage, without soldiers or attendants, and dresses in a kind of 
soldier's relief cap. The plays begin at six and close at nine, and 
all the world goes to bed at ten or eleven." 1 

It is to be remembered in reading this, that it was written 
forty years ago. Not a few considerate observers even now hold 
that the prospect of German progress which Cobden sketches, 

1 To F. Cobden. Sept. 11, 1838. 



Mt.U.] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 89 

would have been happily realized, if Prussian statesmen of a bad 
school had not interrupted the working of orderly forces by a 
policy of military violence which precipitated unity, it is true, 
but at a cost to the best causes in Germany and Europe, for which 
unity, artificial and unstable as it now is, can be no worthy 
recompense. As for the contempt which the passage breathes for 
the English constitution, it is easy to understand the disgust 
which a statesman with the fervor of his prime upon him, and 
with an understanding at once too sincere and too strong to be 
satisfied with conventional shibboleths, might well feel alike for 
the hypocrisy and the shiftlessness of a system, that behind the 
artfully painted mask of popular representation concealed the 
clumsy machinery of a rather dull plutocracy. It is not right to 
press the phrases of the hasty letter of a traveller too closely. If, 
as it is reasonable to think, Cobden only meant that the energetic 
initiative of central authorities in promoting the moralization of a 
country is indispensable in the thick populations and divided 
interests of modern times, and that the great want of England is 
not a political equality which she has got, nor a natural equality, 
which neither England nor any other country is ever likely to 
get, but a real equality in access to justice and in chances of 
mental and moral elevation, — then he was feeling his way to the 
very truths which, of all others, it is most wholesome for us to 
understand and to accept. Whatever we may think of the good 
word which Cobden seems to have for beneficent absolutism, it is 
at least a mark of true sagacity to have discerned that manners 
may have as much to do with the happiness of a people, as has 
the form of their government. 

In a letter to his sister, he shows that his journey has supplied 
him with material for an instructive contrast : — " Let me give 
you an idea of society here by telling you how I spent yesterday, 
being Sunday. In the first place I went to the cathedral church 
at nine o'clock in the morning, a very large building, pretty well 
filled (the ladies were as five to one in the congregation, against 
the number of male attendants). 

" The singing would have been a treat ; but unhappily I was 
placed beside a little old man whose devotion was so great, that 
he sang louder than all the congregation, in a screaming tone that 
pierced my tympanum. I heard nothing but the deep' notes of 
the organ, and the little man's notes still ring in my ears, and his 
ugly little persevering face will haunt me till I reach the Rhine. 
The sermon lasted forty minutes ; the service was all over in one 
hour and a half, and at eleven o'clock I went in a coach to the 
country palace of the king at Charlottenburg, where is a splendid 
mausoleum and a statue of his late wife to be seen. The statue 
is a masterpiece of the first Prussian sculptor, and as I always 



90 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838. 

criticise masterpieces, I thought it stiff. Passing through a wood 
laid out in pleasant walks, interspersed with sheets of water and 
provided with seats, I saw numbers of the cockneys strolling 
about, and again I might have fancied myself in Kensington 
Gardens. But the variety of head-dress, the frequent absence of 
the odious bonnet which seems a part of the Englishwoman's na- 
ture, and the substitution of the lace or gauze covering, which aids 
rather than hides the prettiest accessory of a woman's face, her 
well-managed hair, reminded me that I was from home. It was 
a quarter to two as I returned, and I met the king's sons going to 
dine with their father, who takes that meal exactly at two. So 
you see we are not so unfashionable in Quay Street as we imagined. 
After taking a hasty dinner myself, I hired a horse and rode again 
into the country by another road, and visited the Tivoli Gardens. 
On the way I passed some good houses, the families of which 
were all outside, either in balconies or in the gardens before the 
door, with tables laid out with refreshments, at which the gentle- 
men were smoking, the ladies knitting or sewing, and perhaps the 
children playing around with frolicsome glee. All this close to 
the great thoroughfare to Tivoli, along which crowds of pedestrians 
of all ranks, and great numbers of carriages and horsemen, were 
proceeding. Yet nobody turned his head to sneer, or to insult 
others ; there was no intrusion or curiosity. I thought of old 
England, and as I knew it would be impossible there to witness 
such a scene, I hope I did right in condemning the good people 
of Berlin for their irreligious conduct. At the Tivoli Gardens, 
which are about two miles from the town, they have a good view 
of the city. Here are Montagnes Eusses and other amusements. 
The day was splendid, and such a scene ! Hundreds of M'ell- 
dressed and still better behaved people were lounging or sitting 
in the large gardens, or several buildings of this gay retreat ; in 
the midst were many little tables at which groups were sitting. 
The ladies had their work-bags, and were knitting, or sewing, or 
chatting, or sipping coffee or lemonade ; the gentlemen often 
smoking, or perhaps flirting with their party. Then the scene at 
the Montagnes Pusses ! The little carriages were rattling down 
one after another along this undulating railroad with parties of 
every kind and age, from the old officer to the kitten-like child, 
who clung with all its claws to the nurse, or sister, or mamma, 
who gave it the treat. Then there was music, and afterwards 
fireworks, and so went off the day at Tivoli, without clamor, rude- 
ness, or drunkenness. After Tivoli I looked in at the two prin- 
cipal theatres, which were crammed ; and so ended the day which 
to me was not a day of rest. If you think this is an improper 
picture of a Protestant Sunday, on the other hand, the sober and 
orderly German thinks the drunkenness, the filthy public-houses, 



^Jt.34.] LTFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 91 

the miserable and moping mechanic that pines in his dark alley 
in our English cities on the Sabbath-day, are infinitely worse 
features of a Protestant community, than his Tivoli Gardens. Are 
both wrong ? " x 

With one other and final contrast, we may leave the memorials 
of the foreign tour of 1838 : — 

" I do hope the leather-headed bipeds who soak themselves upon 
prosperous market-days in brandy and water at the White Bear, 
will be brought to the temperature of rational beings by the last 
twelve months' regimen of low prices. And then let us hope that 
we may see them trying at least to bestow a little thought upon 
their own interests, in matters beyond the range of their factory 
walls. It humiliates me to think of the class of people at home, 
who belong to the order of intelligent and educated men that I 
see on the Continent, following -the business of manufacturing, 
spinning, etc. Our countrymen, if they were possessed of a little 
of the mind of the merchants and manufacturers of Frankfort, 
Chemnitz, Elberfeld, etc., would become the De Medicis, and 
Fuggers, and De Witts of England, instead of glorying in being 
the toadies of a clodpole aristocracy, only less enlightened than 
themselves ! " 2 

In other words, they would become the powerful and inde- 
pendent statesmen of the country, the creators and champions of 
a new policy adapted to the ends of a great trading community. 
Thrusting aside the nobles by force of vigorous intellectual and 
moral ascendency, the wealthy middle class would place them- 
selves at the head of a national life with new types and wiser 
ideas. Any one who reflects on the gain for good causes in Eng- 
land, if only the foremost men of this class would dare to be 
themselves, and show by grave and self-respecting example that 
a great citizen is beyond the rivalry of the great noble, will cherish 
the vision that passed for an instant before Cobden's social imagi- 
nation. As for his contrast between the educated traders of the 
Continent, and the haunters of the White Bear with their leathern 
heads, we may be sure that all this was the result of true obser- 
vation, and was due to no childish propensity to think everything 
abroad better than anything at home. Cobden had far too much 
integrity of understanding to yield either to the patriotic bias, or 
the anti-patriotic bias ; and he knew able men when he saw them, 
as well in his own country as elsewhere. 

In the summer of the previous year he had, in one of his 
visits to London, sought the acquaintance of some of the promi- 
nent journalists and politicians, and he wrote down his impres- 
sions of them. 

1 To Miss Cobden. Sept. 3, 1838. 2 To F. C. Oct. 6, 1838. 



92 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1837- 

"Yesterday," — this was in June, 1837, — "we went along with 
Cole to see the print-works of Surrey, and dined with Makepeace. 
The day before, being Sunday, I went in the morning to hear 
Benson (in the Temple Church) abuse the Dissenters and the 
Catholics, and compare the persecuted Church of England to the 

ark of the Israelites, when encompassed by the Amalekites 

Then I went to the Zoological Gardens, and after staying there till 
the last minute I accompanied Cole home to Ins house, and dined 

and slept On Saturday in the morning I was at the Clubs ; 

was introduced to Fonblanque {Examiner), Eintoul {Spectator), 
Bo wring, Howard Elphinstone, etc. In the evening of the same 

day I dined with Hindley, and met , , , etc., etc. [a 

party of north-country members of Parliament and candidates.] 
They are a sad lot of soulless louts, and I was, as compared with 
the intellectual atmosphere of the morning, precipitated from the 

temperature of blood-heat down to zero I have not seen 

C. P. Thomson. I have left my card and address, but he has 
not noticed it, and if he does not send, I'll not call again. 

"I hear queer accounts of our Eight Hon. Member ; they tell 
me he is not the man of business we take him for. We shall 
see. The more I see of our representatives from Lancashire, the 
more ashamed I feel at being so served, and like Falstaff I begin to 
dread the idea of going through Coventry (for at Coventry they 
are generally to be found) with such a crew. I suppose you will 
have more failures by-and-by amongst the people at Manchester 
and Liverpool. I begin now to fear that our distress will be 
greater and more permanent than I had expected at first. It will 
be felt here, too, for some time, in failures amongst those old mer- 
chant princes who are princes only at spending, but whose get- 
tings have been and will be small enough. The result of all will 
be that Liverpool and Manchester will more and more assume 
their proper rank as commercial capitals. London must content 
itself with a gambling trade in the bills drawn by those places. 

" I have had invitations without end, and shall if I stay a year 
still be in request ; but too much talking and running about will 
not suit' me, and I am resolved to turn churlish and morose. I 

have seen, through S 's friend T , some of the Urquhart 

party : they are as mad as ever. I have called upon Eoebuck, 
but have not been able to see him." J 

" I was yesterday introduced to Mrs. and Mr. Grote at their 
house. I use the words Mrs. and Mr. because she is the greater 
politician of the two. He is a mild and philosophical man, pos- 
sessing the highest order of moral and intellectual endowments ; 
but wanting something which for need of a better phrase I shall 

i To F. Cobden. June 6, 1837. 



£!t.33.] LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-39. 93 

call devil. He is too abstract in his tone of reasoning, and does 
not aim to influence others by any proof excepting that of ratio- 
cination ; tusy musy, as Braham calls it, he is destitute of. Had 
she been a man, she would have been the leader of a party ; he 
is not calculated for it. 

" I met at their house (which by the way is the great resort of 
all that is clever in the opposition ranks) Sir W. Molesworth, a 
youthful, florid-looking man of foppjsh and conceited air, with a 
pile of head at the back (firmness) like a sugar-loaf. I should 
say that a cast of his head would furnish one of the most singu- 
lar illustrations of phrenology. For the rest he is not a man of 
superior talents, and let him say what he pleases, there is nothing 
about him that is democratic in principle 

" I have been visiting, and visited by, all sorts of people, the 
Greek Ambassador, Wm. Allen, of Plough Court, the chemist and 
Quaker philanthropist, Eoebuck, and Joseph Parkes, of Birming- 
ham, amongst the number. I spent a couple of hours with Eoe- 
buck at his house. He is a clever fellow, but I find that his 
mind is more active than powerful. He is apt to take lawyer- 
like views of questions, and, as you may see by his speeches, is 
given to cavilling and special pleading 

" Easthope of the ' Chronicle ' is very anxious that I should see 
Lord Palmerston, but I told him I had made up my mind that 
his Lordship is incurable. He says that he is open to conviction, 
and a cleverer man than most of his colleagues. What a beauti- 
ful ensemble they must be ! I have seen nothing of C. P. Thom- 
son ; I would have called again, but I think it better to reserve 
myself till he calls on me. I hear from all sides that he is not 
the man of business we take him for in Manchester. Although 
I have been so much taken up with new acquaintances, I have 
not failed to make calls upon all our old friends and relations." 1 

" One of the very cleverest men I have ever met with is Joseph 
Parkes, late of Birmingham, the eminent constitutional lawyer 
and writer. He was employed to prepare the Municipal Bill and 
other measures. He is not only profound in his profession, but 
skilled in political economy, and quite up to the spirit of the 
age in practical and popular acquirements. He has been very 
civil to me. He received a letter from his friend Lord Durham 
requesting him to find out who the author of Russia, etc., was, as 
those pamphlets contained more statesmanlike views than all the 
heads of the whole British cabinet. His Lordship goes thoroughly 
and entirely with me in my principles upon Turkey. Perhaps 
the truth is he went to St. Petersburg with opposite views, but 
having been wheedled by the Czar and his wife, he is glad to 

1 To F. Cobden. June 12, 1837. 



94 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838. 

find in my arguments some useful pleas for justifying his 
change." 1 

One general impression of great significance Cobden acquired 
from this and some later visits to London. Combe had in one of 
his letters been complaining of the bigotry with which he had to 
contend in Scotland. " What you say of the intolerance of Scot- 
land," said Cobden to him in reply, " applies a good deal to Man- 
chester also. There is but one place in the kingdom in which a 
man can live with perfect freedom of thought and action, and that 
is London." 2 However, he acted on the old and worthy princi- 
ple, Spartam nadus es, hanc exoma, and did not quarrel with 
the society in which his lot was cast, because it preferred the 
echoes of its own prejudices to any unfamiliar note. 

Manchester did not receive its charter of incorporation until 
the autumn of 1838. Cobden's share in promoting this impor- 
tant reform was recognized by the inhabitants of the new borough, 
and he was chosen for alderman at the first election. The com- 
mercial capital of Lancashire was now to show its fitness to be 
the source and centre of a great national cause. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 

The French economist who recounted to his countrymen the history 
of the great agitation in which Cobden now gradually rose to a 
foremost place, justly pointed out that the name and title of the 
Anti-Corn-Law League gave to foreigners a narrow and inadequate 
idea of its scope, its depth, and its animating spirit. What Bastiat 
thus said with regard to foreigners, is just as true with regard to 
ourselves of a later generation. We too are as apt as Frenchmen 
or Germans to think narrowly and inadequately of the scope and 
animating spirit of this celebrated confederation. Yet the interest 
of that astonishing record of zeal, tact, devotion, and courage, into 
some portions of which the biographer of Cobden has now to enter, 
lies principally for us in the circumstance that the abolition of the 
protective duties on food and the shattering of the protective 

1 The Czar said to Sir Eobert Peel : — "Years ago Lord Durham was sent to 
me, a man full of prejudices against me. By merely coming to close quarters with 
me, all his prejudices were driven clean out of him." — Stockmar, quoted in Mr. 
Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, i. 216. 

2 To G.' Combe. March 9, 1841. 



Jir.84.] THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 95 

system was, on one side, the beginning of our great modern 
struggle against class preponderance at home, and on another side, 
the dawn of higher ideals of civilization all over the world. 

It was not of himself assuredly that Cobden was speaking when, 
at the moment of the agitation reaching its .height, he confessed 
that when it first began they had not all possessed the same com- 
prehensive view of the interests and objects involved, that came 
to them later. " I am afraid," he said, " that most of us entered 
upon this struggle with the belief that we had some distinct class- 
interest in the question, and that we should carry it by a manifes- 
tation of our will in this district, against the will and consent of 
other portions of the community." 2 There was in this nothing 
that is either astonishing or discreditable. The important fact was 
that the class-interest of the manufacturers and merchants hap- 
pened to fall in with the good of the rest of the community ; while 
the class-interest against which they were going up to do battle was 
an uncompensated burden on the whole commonwealth. Besides 
this, it has been observed on a hundred occasions in history, that 
a good cause takes on in its progress larger and unforeseen ele- 
ments, and these in their turn bring out the nobler feelings of the 
best among its soldiers. So it was here. The class-interest 
widened into the consciousness of a commanding national interest. 
In raising the question of the bread-tax, and its pestilent effects on 
their own trade and on the homes of their workmen, the Lancashire 
men were involuntarily opening the whole question of the condi- 
tion of England. 

The backbone of the discussion in its strictly local aspect was in 
the question which Cobden and his friends at this time kept inces- 
santly asking. With a population increasing at the rate of a thou- 
sand souls a week, how can wages be kept up, unless there be con- 
stantly increasing markets found for the employment of labor ; and 
how can foreign countries buy our manufactures, unless we take in 
return their corn, timber, or whatever else they are able to produce ? 
Apart, moreover, from increase of population, is it not clear that, if 
capitalists were free to exchange their productions for the corn of 
other countries, the workmen would have abundant employment 
at enhanced wages ? A still more formidable argument even than 
these lay in the mouths of the petitioners. They boldly charged 
Parliament with fostering the rivalry of foreign competitors ; 
and the charge could not be answered. By denying to America 
and to Germany the liberty of exchanging their surplus food for 
our manufactures, the English Legislature had actually forced 
America and Germany to divert their resources from the produc- 
tion of food, in order to satisfy their natural demand for manufac- 

1 Speech at Manchester, Oct. 19, 1843. 



96 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1838. 

tures. It was the corn laws which nursed foreign competition into 
full vitality. 

But this strictly commercial aspect could not suffice. Moral 
ideas of the relations of class to class in this country, and of the 
relations of country to country in the civilized world, lay behind 
the contention of the hour, and in the course of that contention 
came into new light. The promptings of a commercial shrewd- 
ness were gradually enlarged into enthusiasm for a far-reaching 
principle, and the hard-headed man of business gradually felt him- 
self touched with the generous glow of the patriot and the de- 
liverer. 

Cobclen's speculative mind had speedily placed the conflict in 
its true relation to other causes. We have already seen how ample 
a conception he possessed of the transformation for which English 
society was ripe, and how thoroughly he had accustomed himself 
to think of the corn laws as merely part of a great whole of abuse 
and obstruction. But he was now, as at all times, far too wise a 
man to fall into the characteristic weakness of the system-monger, 
by passing over the work that lay to his hand, and insisting that 
people should swallow his system whole. Nobody knew better 
how great a part of wisdom it is for a man who seeks to improve 
society, to be right in discerning at a given moment what is the 
next thing to be done, or whether there is anything to be done at 
all. His interest in remoter issues did not prevent him from 
throwing himself with all the energy of apostolic spirit upon the 
particular point at which the campaign of a century first opened. 
As he said to his brother in a letter that has already been quoted, 
he had convinced himself that a moral, and even a religious, 
spirit might be infused into the question of the corn laws, and that 
if it were agitated in the same manner as the old question of 
slavery, the effect would be irresistible. 1 

Cobden was in no sense the original projector of an organized 
body for throwing off the burden of the corn duties. In 1836 an 
Anti-Corn-Law Association had been formed in London ; its prin- 
cipal members were the parliamentary radicals, Grote, Molesworth, 
Joseph Hume, and Mr. Eoebuck. But this group, notwithstand- 
ing their acuteness, their logical penetration, and the soundness of 
their ideas, were in that, as in so many other matters, stricken 
with impotence. Their gifts of reasoning were admirable, but 
they had no gifts for popular organization, and neither their per- 
sonality nor their logic offered anything to excite the imagination 
or interest the sentiment of the public. " The free-traders," Lord 
Sydenham said, with a pang, in 1841, " have never been orators 
since Mr. Pitt's early days. We hammered away with facts and 

1 Above, pp. 85, 86. 



^t. 34.] THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 97 

figures and some arguments ; but we could not elevate the subject 
and excite the feelings of the people." An economic demonstra- 
tion went for nothing, until it was made alive by the passion of 
suffering interests and the reverberations of the popular voice. 
Lord Melbourne, in 1838, sharply informed all petitioners for the 
repeal of the corn laws, that they must look for no decided action 
on the part of the government, until they had made it quite clear 
that the majority of the nation were strongly in favor of a new 
policy. London, from causes that have often been explained and 
are well understood, is no centre for the kind of agitation which 
the Prime Minister, not without some secret mockery, invited the 
repealers to undertake. Tn London there is no effective unity ; 
interests are too varied and dispersive ; zeal loses its directness and 
edge amid the distracting play of so many miscellaneous social and 
intellectual elements. It was not until a body of men in Man- 
chester were moved to take the matter in hand, that any serious 
attempt was made to inform and arouse the country. 

The price of wheat had risen to seventy-seven shillings in the 
August of 1838 ; there was every prospect of a wet harvesting ; 
the revenue was declining ; deficit was becoming a familiar word ; 
pauperism was increasing ; and the manufacturing population of 
Lancashire were finding it impossible to support themselves, be- 
cause the landlords, and the legislation of a generation of land- 
lords before them, insisted on keeping the first necessity of life at 
an artificially high rate. Yet easy as it is now to write the expla- 
nation contained in the last few words, comparatively few men had 
at that time seized the truth of it. That explanation was in the 
stage of a vague general suspicion, rather than the definite per- 
ception of a precise cause. Men are so engaged by the homely 
pressure of each day as it comes, and the natural solicitudes of 
common life are so instant, that a bad institution or a monstrous 
piece of misgovernment is always endured in patience for many 
years after the remedy has been urged on public attention. No 
cure is considered with an accurate mind, until the evil has become 
too sharp to be borne, or its whole force and weight brought 
irresistibly before the world by its more ardent, penetrative, and 
indomitable spirits. 

In October, 1838, a band of seven men met at a hotel in Man- 
chester, and formed a new Anti-Corn-Law Association. They 
were speedily joined by others, including Cobden, who from this 
moment began to take a prominent part in all counsel and action. 

That critical moment had arrived, which comes in the history 
of every successful movement, when a section arises within the 
party, which refuses from that day forward either to postpone 
or to compromise. The feeling among the older men was to stop 
short in their demands at some modification of the existing duty. 

7 



98 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1839. 

This was the mind of the President and most of the directors of 
.the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. A meeting of this im- 
portant body was held in December (1838). The officers of the 
Chamber had, only for the second time in ten years, prepared 
a petition to the House of Commons, but the petition spoke only 
of modifications, and total repeal was not whispered. The more 
energetic members protested against these faltering voices. 
Cobden struck into the debate with that finely tempered weapon 
of argumentative speech, which was his most singular endow- 
ment. The turbid sediment of miscellaneous discussion sank 
away, as he brought out a lucid proof that the corn law was the 
only obstacle to a vast increase of their trade, and that every 
shilling of the protection on corn w r hich thus obstructed their 
prosperity, passed into the pockets of the landowners, without 
conferring an atom of advantage on either the farmer or the 
laborer. 

The meeting was adjourned, to the great chagrin of the Pres- 
ident, and' when the members assembled, a week later, Cobden 
drew from his pocket a draft petition which he and his allies had 
prepared in the interval, and which after a discussion of many 
hours was adopted by an almost unanimous vote. The preamble 
laid all the stress on the alleged facts of foreign competition, 
in words which never fail to be heard in times of bad trade. It 
recited how the existing laws prevented the British manufacturer 
from exchanging the produce of his labor for the corn of other 
countries, and so enabled his foreign rivals to purchase their food 
at one half of the price at which it was sold in the English 
market ; and finally the prayer of the petition called for the 
repeal of all laws relating to the importation of foreign corn and 
other foreign articles of subsistence, and implored the House to 
carry out to the fullest extent, both as affects manufactures and 
agriculture, the true and peaceful principles of free trade. 

In the following month, January, 1839, the Anti-Corn-Law 
Association showed that it was in earnest in the intention to 
agitate, by proceeding to raise a subscription of an effective sum 
of money. Cobden threw out one of those expressions which 
catch men's minds in moments when they are already ripe for 
action. " Let us," he said, "invest part of our property, in order 
to save the rest from confiscation." Within a month six thou- 
sand pounds had been raised, the first instalment of many scores 
of thousands still to come. A great banquet was given to some 
of the parliamentary supporters of Free Trade ; more money was 
subscribed, convictions became clearer, and purpose waxed more 
resolute. On the day after the banquet, at a meeting of delegates 
from other towns, Cobden brought forward a scheme for united 
action among the various associations throughout the country. 



^t. 35.] THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 99 

This was the germ of what ultimately became the League. It 
is worth noticing that, more than four years before this, he had 
in his first pamphlet sketched in a general form the outlines of 
the course eventually followed by the League, — so fertile was 
his mind in practical methods of enlightening opinion, even 
without the stimulation of a company of sympathetic agitators. 
There he had asked how it was that so little progress had been 
made in the study of which Adam Smith was the great luminary, 
and why, while there were Banksian, Linnsean, Hunterian socie- 
ties, there was no Smithian society, for the purpose of disseminat- 
ing a more just knowledge of the principles of trade. Such 
a society might enter into correspondence with similar bodies 
abroad, and so help to amend the restrictive policy of foreign 
governments, while at home prizes might be offered for the best 
essays on the corn question, and lecturers might be sent to en- 
lighten the agriculturists, and to invite discussion upon a sub- 
ject which, while so difficult, was yet of such paramount interest 
to them and to the rest of the country. 1 The hour for the par- 
tial application of these very ideas had now come. Before the 
month of January, the Manchester Anti-Corn-Law Association 
was completely organized, and its programme laid before the 
public. The object was declared to be to obtain by all legal and 
constitutional means, such as the formation of local associations, 
the delivery of lectures, the distribution of tracts, and the pres- 
entation of petitions to Parliament, the total and immediate 
repeal of the corn and provision laws. Cobden was appointed 
to be a member of the executive committee, and he continued 
in that office until the close of the agitation. 

In the February of 1839, as Cobden gayly reminded a great 
audience on the eve of victory six years later, three of them in a 
small room at Brown's hotel in Palace Yard were visited by a 
nobleman who had taken an active part in advocating a modifica- 
tion of the corn laws, but who could not bring himself to the 
point of total repeal. He asked what had brought them to town, 
and what it was that they wanted. They had come, they said, to 
seek the total and immediate repeal of the corn laws. With an 
emphatic shake of the head, he answered, " You will overturn the 
monarchy as soon as you will accomplish that." 2 For the mo- 
ment it appeared as if this were really true. Mr. Villiers moved 
in the House of Commons (Feb. 18), that a number of petitions 
against the corn laws should be referred to a Committee of the 
whole House. The motion was negatived without a division. 
The next day he moved that certain members of the Manchester 
Association should be heard at the bar, in support of the allega- 

1 Coladen's Political Writings, i. 32. 

2 Cobden's Speeches, i. 345. 



100 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1839. 

tions of a petition which they had presented three days before. 
Though this was a Whig Parliament, or because it was a Whig 
Parliament, the motion was thrown out by a majority of more 
than two to one in a House of more than five hundred members. 

We cease to be amazed at this deliberate rejection of informa- 
tion from some of the weightiest men in the kingdom, at one of 
the most critical moments in the history of the kingdom, when 
we recall the fact that notwithstanding the pretended reform of 
Parliament in 1832, four fifths of the members of the House of 
Commons belonged to the old landed interests. The bewilder- 
ment of the government was shown by the fact that Lord John 
Russell and Lord Palmerston went into the lobby with the Pro- 
tectionists, while the President of the Board of Trade followed 
Mr. Villi ers. Yet Lord John had declared a short time before, 
that he admitted the duties on corn as then levied to be untenable. 
The whole incident is one of the most striking illustrations on 
record of one of the worst characteristics of parliamentary govern- 
ment, its sluggishness in facing questions on their merits. In this 
instance, the majority found before long that behind the industrial 
facts which they were too selfish and indolent to desire to hear, 
were political forces which they and their leader together were 
powerless to resist. 

A few days later (March 12) Mr. Villiers brought forward his 
annual motion, that the House should resolve itself into committee 
to take into consideration the act regulating the importation of 
foreign corn. Across Palace Yard were assembled delegates from 
the thirty-six principal towns in the kingdom, to enforce a prayer 
that had been urged by half a million of petitioners. But the 
motion, after a debate which extended over five nights, received 
only one hundred and ninety-seven votes out of a House of five 
hundred and forty-one. The delegates returned to their homes 
with the conviction that they had still a prolonged struggle before 
them. In the picturesque phrase of a contemporary writer, their 
departure was like the break-up of a Mahratta camp ; it did not 
mean that the war was over, but only that attack would be re- 
newed from another quarter. Some of them were inclined to 
despond, but the greater part almost instantly came round to the 
energetic mind of Cobden. He recalled the delegates to the fact 
that, in spite of the House over the way, they represented three 
millions of the people. He compared the alliance of the great 
towns of England to the League of the Hanse Towns of Germany. 
That League had turned the castles which crowned the rocks 
along the PJrine, the Danube, and the Elbe into dismantled me- 
morials of the past, and the new league would not fail in disman- 
tling the legislative stronghold of the new feudal oppressors in 
England. No time w T as lost in strengthening their organization 



^t. 35.] THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 101 

by drawing isolated societies to an effective centre. Measures 
were speedily taken (March) for the formation of a permanent 
union, to be called the Anti-Corn-Law League, to be composed of 
all the towns and districts that were represented in the delegation, 
and of as many others as might be induced to form local associa- 
tions and federate them with the League. The executive com- 
mittee of the old Manchester Anti-Corn-Law Association was trans- 
formed into the council of the new Anti-Corn-Law League. With 
the same view of securing unity of action, the central offices were 
established in Manchester, whence from this time forward the 
national movement was directed. 

The impatience of the free-traders had been irritated, rather 
than soothed, by a speech of two hours in length from the great 
leader of the Conservative opposition, in which he carefully ab- 
stained from committing himself to any opinion on the principle 
at issue. He devised elaborate trains of hypothetical reasoning ; 
he demolished imaginary cases ; he dwelt on the irreconcilable 
contradictions among the best economists. But there was not a 
single sentence in the whole of Sir Robert Peel's speech, that 
could be taken to tie his hands in dealing with the corn laws, 
while on the contrary there was one sentence which, to any one 
who should have accustomed himself to study the workings of 
that strong but furtive, intellect, might have revealed that the 
great organ and chief of the landowners was not far removed from 
the Manchester manufacturer. He had at least placed himself in 
the mental attitude which made him accessible to their arguments. 
"I have no hesitation in saying," — so Sir Robert Peel told the House, 
— " that unless the existence of the corn law can be shown to be 
consistent, not only with the prosperity of agriculture and the 
maintenance of the landlord's interest, but also with the protec- 
tion and the maintenance of the general interests of the country, 
and especially with the improvement of the condition of the 
laboring class, the corn law is practically at an end." 1 

Although such a position was rational and political, as com- 
pared with the talk of those who could not get beyond the argu- 
ment that the proprietors of the soil had a right to do as they 
pleased with their own, still there remained a long road to travel 
before Peel could be regarded as a probable auxiliary. The re- 
pealers felt that they must depend upon their own efforts, without 
reference either to Sir Robert or Lord John. They had started a 
little organ of their own in the press in April ; and the Anti- 
Corn-Law Circular used language which was not at all too strong 
for the taste of most of them, when it cried out that all political 
factions were equally dishonest and profligate ; that the repealers 

1 March 18, 1839. 



102 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1839. 

at any rate would not suffer their great question to be made a 
mere official hobby-horse ; that they would pursue an uncle viating 
course of strenuous protest to the nation at large, knowing well 
that repeal would never be granted by either the one or the other 
faction of political pettifoggers by which the kingdom was alter- 
nately cursed. If they could only get the honest, simple-hearted, 
and intelligent portion of the people to see the justice and the 
necessity of their cause, then they would not be long before they 
dragged both sections of the state quacks at their chariot wheels, 
each striving to outbid the other in tenders of service and offers 
of concession. 1 

In less violent tones, Cobden kept insisting on the same point, 
after the rebuffs of the year had shown them that the battle would 
be long, and that its issues went too deep into the social system 
to suit the aims of traditional parties, for the traditional parties 
in England were of their very essence superficial and personal. 
Towards the end of 1839, Dr. Bowring came to Manchester to re- 
port on what. he had found on the subject of trade with England 
during a recent official visit to the countries of the German Cus- 
toms Union. His points were, that in consequence of the English 
obstruction to the import of grain and timber, capital in Germany 
was being diverted to manufactures ; that the German agricul- 
turists were naturally eager for the removal of the protective duties 
on manufactures, which they could purchase more cheaply from 
England ; but that they were met by the argument that England 
would never reciprocate by opening a free market for return pur- 
chases of grain, as her landlords and agriculturists were far too 
mighty to be overthrown or even shaken. Cobden, with his usual 
high confidence of spirit, replied to this by asking how every 
social change and every religious change had been accomplished 
otherwise than by an appeal to public opinion. How, he exclaimed, 
had they secured the penny postage, which happened to have come 
into force on the very day of the meeting ? Not by sitting still 
and quietly wishing for it, but by a number of men stepping out, 
spending their money, giving their time, agitating the commu- 
nity. And in the same way, how could they think that the corn 
laws would be repealed by sitting still at home, and lamenting 
over their evils ? He appealed to them, not as Whigs, Tories, or 
Eadicals, but as men with a sense not more of commercial interest 
than of unmistakable national duty. 

We have to remember that at this date the admission of Cath- 
olics to Parliament was not so remote that men had forgotten 
the means by which that triumph of justice and tolerance had 
been achieved. Catholic emancipation was only ten years old, 

i December 10, 1839. 



Mi. 35.] THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 103 

and it was present to the mind of every politician who wanted to 
have anything done, that this great measure had been carried by 
the incessant activity of O'Connell and the Catholic Association. 
That was a memorable example that the prejudice of the govern- 
ing classes was to be most effectually overcome by the agita- 
tion of a powerful outside confederacy. No two men were ever 
much more unlike than Cobden and O'Connell, but Cobden had 
been a subscriber to the great agitator's Rent, and we may be sure 
that the Irish example was not lost on the leaders of the associa- 
tion against the corn laws. In truth here was the vital change 
that had been finally effected in our system by the Reform Act. 
Schemes of political improvement were henceforth to spring up 
outside of Parliament, instead of in the creative mind of the par- 
liamentary leader ; and official statesmanship has ever since con- 
sisted less in working out principles, than in measuring the force 
and direction of the popular gale. It is thus the non-official 
statesman who, by concentrating the currents of common senti- 
ment or opinion, really shapes the policy which the official chiefs 
accept from his hands. 

The first year's campaign convinced the repealers that agitation 
is not always such smooth work as it had been in Ireland. They 
learnt how hardly an old class interest dies. They had begun 
the work of propagandism by sending out a small band, which 
afterwards became a large one, of economic missionaries. In 
Scotland the new gospel found a temperate hearing and much 
acceptance, but in England the lecturers were not many days in 
discovering at what peril they had undertaken to assault the preju- 
dice and selfishness of a territorial aristocracy, and the brutality 
or cowardice of their hangers-on. Though there were many 
districts where nobody interfered with them, there were many 
others where neither law nor equity gave them protection. At 
Arundel the mayor refused the use of the town hall, on the ground 
that the lecture would make the laborers discontented ; and the 
landlord refused the use of his large room, on the ground that, if 
he granted it, he should lose his customers. A landowning farmer 
went further, and offered a bushel of wheat to anybody who would 
throw the lecturer into the river. At Petersfield, a paltry little 
borough in Hampshire, almost in sight of Cobden's birthplace, 
either spite or the timidity of political bondage went so far, that 
when the lecturer returned, after his harangue in the market- 
place, to the Dolphin, Boar, or Lion, where he had taken his tea 
and ordered his bed, the landlord and landlady peremptorily 
desired him to leave their house. In the eastern counties, again, 
they were usually well received by the common people, but vexed 
and harassed by the authorities. At Louth they were allowed to 
deliver their address in the town hall one night, but as the lee- 



104 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1839. 

turer had the fortune to discomfit a local magnate in the discus- 
sion which followed, the permission which had been given to use 
the hall on the next night was arbitrarily withdrawn, and the 
lecturers were driven to say what they had come to say from a 
gig in the market-place. Nor was this the end of the adventure. 
As they were about to leave the town, they were served with a 
warrant for causing an obstruction in a thoroughfare ; they were 
brought before the very magnate over whom they had won so 
fatal a victory, and by him punished with a fine. At Stamford 
they were warned that the mob would tear them to pieces ; but 
they protected themselves with a body-guard, and the mob was 
discovered to be less hostile than a small band of people who 
ought to have deserved the name of respectable. At Huntingdon 
the town clerk was the leader in provoking an outrageous disturb- 
ance, which forced the lecturer to give up the ground. In the 
Duke of Newcastle's country, at Newark and at Eetford, there 
was not an innkeeper who dared to let the lecturer a room ; and 
at Worksop, not only could the lecturer not find a room, nor a 
printer who should dare to print a placard, but he was assaulted 
by hired bullies in the street. It was reserved for a seat of learn- 
ing to show that no brutality can equal that which is engendered 
of the union of the violent inherited prejudice of the educated 
classes, with the high spirits of youth. No creature is a more 
unbridled ruffian than the ruffian undergraduate can be, and at 
Cambridge the peaceful arguments of the lecturer were inter- 
rupted by a destructive and sanguinary riot. The local newspaper 
afterwards piously congratulated the furious gownsmen on having 
done their duty as " the friends of good government, and the up- 
holders of the religious institutions of the country." 1 

It is only when people want to get something done that all the 
odd perversities of the human mind spread themselves out in 
panoramic fulness. A long campaign of reckless and virulent 
calumny was at once opened in the party organs. One London 
newspaper described the worst members of the . Association as 
unprincipled schemers, and the best as self-conceited socialists. 
Another declared with authority that it was composed in equal 
parts of commercial swindlers and political swindlers. A third 
with edifying unction denounced their sentiments as subversive 
of all moral right and order, their organization as a disloyal fac- 
tion, and their speakers as revolutionary emissaries, whom all 
peaceable and well-disposed persons ought to assist the authorities 
in peremptorily putting down. The Morning Post, the journal of 
London idleness, hailed the Manchester workers in a style that 
would have been grotesque enough, if only it had not represented 

i May 14, 1839. 



JEr.35.] THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 105 

the serious thought of many of the most important people in the 
dominant class. " The manufacturing people exclaim, ' Why- 
should we not be permitted to exchange the produce of our in- 
dustry for the greatest quantity of food which that industry will 
anywhere command ? ' To which we answer, why not, indeed ? 
Who hinders you ? Take your manufactures away with you by 
all means, and exchange them anywhere you will from Tobolsk 
to Timbuctoo. If nothing will serve you but to eat foreign corn, 
away with you, you and your goods, and let us never see you 
more ! " This was a quarter from which the language of simple- 
tons was to be expected, but, as the repealers had a thousand 
opportunities of discovering within the next seven years, the 
language of simpletons has many dialects. One of the lowest 
perversions of the right sense of place and proportion in things, 
was reached by those who cried out angrily that the great and 
decisive test for candidates at the next general election would not 
be corn laws or anti-corn-laws, but " How are your views on the 
Sabbath question ? " The Chartists, of whom we shall say some- 
thing in another chapter, began a long course of violent hostility 
by trying at the very outset of the agitation to break up a meet- 
ing at Leeds, insisting that the movement was a cheat put on the 
work-people of the country by cunning and rapacious employers. 
Even in places where so much strong political intelligence existed 
as at Birmingham, members of the town council of the borough 
were found to talk about " the interested movements of the Whig 
corn law intriguers," and to urge that the discussion of the corn 
laws was merely a Whig device to embarrass the patriotic cham- 
pions of parliamentary reform. 1 Of all this the Leaguers heard 
much more, and from more troublesome people, in the years to 
come. 

Meanwhile the information which their lecturers brought back 
to head-quarters at Manchester, as to the state of some of the 
rural districts, inspired the leaders of the agitation with new zeal, 
and a stronger conviction of the importance of their cause. In 
Devonshire they found that the wages of the laborers were from 
seven to nine shillings a week ; that they seldom saw meat or 
tasted milk ; and that their chief food was a compost of ground 
barley and potatoes. It was little wonder that, in a county where 
such was the condition of labor, the lecturer was privately asked 
by poor men at the roadside if he could tell them where the fight- 
ing was to be. Nor need we doubt that he was speaking the 
simple truth when he reported that, though ignorant of Chartism 
as a political question, the great mass of the population of Devon 
were just as ready for pikes and pistols, as the most excitable 

1 Bunce's History of the Corporation of Birmingham, i. 166, 167. 



106 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1839. 

people of the factory towns. In Somersetshire the budget of a 
laborer, his wife, and five children under ten years of age, was as 
follows. Half a bushel of wheat cost four shillings ; for grinding, 
baking, and barm, sixpence ; firing, sixpence ; rent, eighteen 
pence ; leaving, out of the total earnings of seven shillings, a 
balance of sixpence, out of which to provide the family with 
clothing, potatoes, and all the other necessaries and luxuries of 
human existence. 

With facts like these before them, the Leaguers read with mock- 
ery the idyllic fustian in which even the ablest men of the land- 
lord party complacently indulged their feeling for the picturesque. 
Sir James Graham, in resisting Mr. Villiers's motion this year, 
spoke of the breezy call of incense-breathing morn, the neat 
thatched cottage, the blooming garden, the cheerful village green. 
The repeal of the corn laws would lead to a great migration from 
all this loveliness to the noisy alley, and the " sad sound of the 
factory bell." " Tell not to me any more," the orator called out 
in a foolish ecstasy, " of the cruelties of the conveyance of the 
Poles to the wintry wastes of Siberia; talk not to me of the trans- 
portation of the Hill Coolies from Coromandel to the Mauritius ; 
a change is contemplating by some members of this House, far 
more cruel, far more heart-rending, in the bosom of our native 
land." 1 If this nonsense was the vein of so able a man as Gra- 
ham, we may infer the depths of prejudice and fallacy down into 
which Cobden and his allies had to follow less sensible people. 
And the struggle had hardly begun. The landlords were not yet 
awakened into consciousness that this time the Manchester men 
were in earnest, and resolutely intended to raise the country upon 
them. They still believed that the corn laws were as safe as the 
monarchy; and many months passed before they realized that the 
little group who now met several times in each week in a dingy 
room on an upper floor at Ne wall's Buildings in Market Street in 
Manchester, were not to be daunted either by bad divisions in 
Parliament, or bad language in the newspapers, because they had 
become fired by the conviction that what they were fighting 
against was not merely a fiscal blunder, but a national iniquity. 

Cobden lived at this time, along with his brothers and sisters, 
in a large house in Quay Street, which he had bought very shortly 
after settling in Manchester, and which was known to the next 
generation as Owens College. His business was in a flourishing- 
condition, and it would have saved him from many a day of misery 
if he could have been content to leave it as it was. It was from 
no selfish or personal motive that he now proceeded to make a 

i March 15, 1839. 



Mi. 35.] L THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE. 107 

change in the arrangements. The reader has already seen how at 
the beginning of his career Cobden affectionately insisted with 
his, brother, " that you will henceforth consider yourself as by 
right my associate in all the favors of fortune." And it was in 
the interest of Frederick Cobden and his two younger brothers 
that he now broke up the existing partnership. The firm had 
previously consisted of five members, carrying on business under 
three titles ; one at the warehouse in Watling Street in London ; 
the second, at the print-works at Sabden ; the third, specifically 
known as Eichard Cobden and Company, at Manchester and 
Crosse Hall, near Chorley in Lancashire. Frederick Cobden was 
not a member of any of these allied firms, and there seems to 
have been no willingness to make room for him. At the end of 
July, 1839, Cobden withdrew from his old partners. He left 
them to carry on the London warehouse and the Sabden print- 
works on their own account. He then proceeded himself to form 
a new partnership with Frederick Cobden, to carry on the Man- 
chester warehouse and the print-works at Crosse Hall. This was 
the arrangement of Cobden's business during the six years of 
agitation against the Corn Laws. 

Though his motive iu making the change was the desire to 
raise the position of his elder brother at once, and to pave the 
way for his younger brother in the future, yet Cobden had no 
doubt convinced himself that the change was sound and prudent 
in itself. A less sanguine man would have found the altered 
conditions formidable. In the business which he left, though he 
did not find himself in entire sympathy with one of the London 
partners, all had been managed with the greatest exactitude, and 
there had been abundance of capital in proportion to the extent 
of the business. At Crosse Hall lie found himself much less 
favorably placed. He was thrown entirely on his own unaided 
resources, for his letters show that Frederick Cobden, with all his 
excellent qualities, yet was one of the men who mistake feverish 
anxiety for business-like caution, and then suppose that they 
repair the errors of timidity by moments of hurried action. In- 
stead of coming into a factory, like the works at Sabden, perfectly 
organized and superintended by an experienced eye, Cobden had 
now to find a new staff, and what was perhaps at least as arduous, 
he had to find new capital, and to earn interest as well as profit 
from its working. 

He had, moreover, so early as 1835 made speculative purchases 
of land in various quarters of Manchester, where his too cheerful 
vision discovered a measureless demand for houses, shops, and 
factories, as soon as ever the corn duty should be repealed, and 
the springs of industrial enterprise set free. For five and twenty 
years waste spaces between Victoria Park and Eusholme, in Quay 



108 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1840. 

Street, and Oxford Street, bore melancholy testimony to a mis- 
calculation ; and for five and twenty years Cobden paid a thousand 
pounds a year, in the shape of chief rent, for a property which 
thus brought him not a shilling of return. In spite of the grave 
drawbacks which I have named, it is not doubted by those who 
have the best means of knowing, that the new firm was for some 
time reasonably successful, and was even visited by gleams of 
genuine prosperity. But the undertaking was hardly launched, 
before its chief was drawn away from effective interest in it by a 
strong vocation, which he could not resist, to be the leader of the 
great national cause of the time. 

Meanwhile, within a few months of the resettlement of his 
business, he took another momentous step in marrying (May, 
1840). His wife was Miss Catherine Anne Williams, a young 
Welsh lady, whose acquaintance he had made as a school friend 
of one of his sisters. She is said by all who knew her to have 
been endowed with singular personal beauty, and with manners 
of perfect dignity and charm. Whether in Cobden's case this 
union was preceded by much deliberation, we do not know ; 
perhaps experience shows that the profoundest deliberation in 
choosing a wife is little better than the cleverness of people who 
boast of a scientific secret of winning in a lottery. Although 
marriage is usually so much the most important element in 
deciding whether a life shall be heaven or hell, it is that on which 
in any given instance it is least proper for a stranger to speak. 

It would seem that to be the wife of a prominent public man 
is not always an easy lot. As Goethe's Leonora says of men and 
women : — 

Ihr strebt nach fernen Giitern, 
Und euer Streben muss gewaltsam seyn. 
Ihr wagt es, fur die Ewigkeit zu handeln, 
Wenn wir ein einzig nah beschranktes Gut 
Auf dieser Erde nur besitzen moehten, 
Und wiinschen dass es uns bestandig bliebe. 1 

If the champion of great causes has to endure the loss- of 
domestic companionship, he is at least compensated by patriotic 
satisfaction in the result ; but unless the woman be of more than 
common strength of public zeal, the thousand lonely days and 
nights and all the swarm of undivided household cares may well 
put temper and spirits to a sharp strain. In the last year of 
Cobden's life, as he and Mrs. Cobden were coming up to London 
from their home in the country, Mrs. Cobden said to him, — "I 
sometimes think that, after all the good work that you have done, 
and in spite of fame and great position, it would have been better 

1 "Ye strive for far-off goals, and strenuous your battle. For immortality to 
toil, do you aspire. But we one single narrow good, and that nigh to us, would 
fain possess upon this earth, and only ask that it should steadfast dwell." 



Mt. 36.] THE CORN LAWS. 109 

for us both if, after you and I married, we had gone to settle in 
the backwoods of Canada." And Cobden could only say, after 
looking for a moment or two with a gaze of mournful preoccupa- 
tion through the window of the carriage, that he was not sure 
that what she said was not too true. But in 1840 evil days had 
not yet come, and as they took their summer wedding trip through 
France, Savoy, Switzerland, and Germany, Cobden had as good 
right as any mortal can ever have to look forward to a future of 
material prosperity, domestic happiness, and honest service to his 
country. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

THE CORN LAWS. 

It will perhaps not be inconvenient if I here pause in my 
narrative, to introduce a short parenthesis setting forth what 
actually were the nature and working of the Corn Laws at this 
time. Their destruction was the one finished triumph with which 
Cobden's name is associated. The wider doctrines which he tried 
to impress upon men still await the seal of general acceptance ; 
but it is a tolerably safe prophecy that no English statesman will 
ever revive a. tax upon bread. 

Cobden was much too careful a student of the facts of his 
question to fall into the error of the declaimers on his own side, 
who assumed that none but the owners of the soil had ever claimed 
protection by law for their industry. In the first number of the 
little organ which was issued by the Association, 1 he wrote a 
paper on the modern history of the Corn Laws, which began by 
plainly admitting, what it would have been childish to deny, that 
down to 1820 manufacturers probably enjoyed as ample a share 
of legislative protection as the growers of corn. Huskisson's 
legislation from 1823 to 1825 reduced the tariff of duties upon 
almost every article of foreign manufacture, This stamped that 
date, in Cobden's words, as the era of a commercial revolution, 
more important in its effects upon society, and pregnant with 
weightier consequences in the future, than many of those political 
revolutions which have commanded infinitely greater attention 
from historians. The duty on cotton goods was lowered from a 
figure ranging from between seventy-five and fifty per cent down 
to ten per cent. Imported linens sometimes paid as much as one 

1 April 16, 1839. 



110 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1825-28. 

hundred and eighty per cent ; they were henceforth to be admitted 
at twenty-five. Paper had been prohibited ; it was now allowed 
to come in on paying twice the amount levied as excise from the 
home manufacturer. The duty on a foreign manufacture in no 
case exceeded thirty per cent. The principle of this immense reform 
was that, if the article were not made either much better or at a 
much lower price abroad than at home, then such a duty would be 
ample for purposes of protection. If, on the contrary, the foreign 
article were either so much better or so much cheaper as to render 
thirty per cent insufficient for purposes of protection, then, in the 
first place, a heavier duty would only put a premium on smug- 
gling; and, secondly, said Huskisson, there is no wisdom in 
bolstering up a competition which this degree of protection will 
not sustain. 

These enlightened opinions, and the measures which followed 
from them, were the first rays of dawn after the long night of 
confusion and mediocrity in which the Castlereaghs, Sidmouths, 
Bathursts, Vansittarts, had governed their unfortunate country. 
Even now political power was so distributed that, though the new 
school thus saw the better course, they dared not to venture too 
rapidly upon it. There was one mighty and imperious interest 
which, as the parliamentary system was then disposed, even Can- 
ning's courage shrank from offending. The Cabinet, which had 
radically modified a host of restrictive laws, was logically and 
politically bound to deal with the most important of them all — 
that which restrained the importation of food. By the law of 
1815 corn could be imported when wheat had risen to eighty 
shillings a quarter. By the law of 1822 this was improved to 
the extent of permitting importation when the price of wheat 
was seventy shillings a quarter. The landlords vowed that this 
was the lowest rate at which the British farmer could live, and 
not a few of them cried out for total prohibition. They had 
powerful allies in the Cabinet, and even the Liberal wing in the 
Cabinet, which was led by Canning, never dreamed of being able 
to push the landlords very hard. When pressed by a motion for - 
extending to the case of grain the same principle which had just 
been so wisely glorified in the case of cotton, woollen, silk, linen, 
and glass, Huskisson resisted it on the too familiar ground that 
the motion was ill-timed. He did not deny that it would pres- 
ently be necessary to revise the Corn Laws ; and he added the 
important admission that several foreign countries were not only 
in distress, owing to our exclusion of their corn, but that in re- 
venge they were proceeding to shut out our manufactures. 1 

Two years elapsed before the Ministry ventured to touch the 
burning subject. The new measure was not brought forward by 

1 April 28, 1825. 



Mi. 21-24.] THE CORN LAWS. Ill 

Huskisson. It was officially given out as the reason for this 
tli at he was ill, but this was only one of the peculiar blinds that 
serve to open people's eyes. Everybody suspected that Huskis- 
son's illness was in reality the chagrin of the good economist at a 
bad measure. It was Canning who, in the spring of 1827, intro- 
duced the new Corn Bill. 1 It proceeded on the plan of making 
the duty vary inversely with the price of the grain in the home 
market. When the price of wheat in the home market reached 
sixty shillings a quarter, foreign wheat was to pay on importation 
a duty of one pound. For every rise of a shilling in the home 
price the duty was to go down two shillings ; for every fall of a 
shilling in the home price the duty was to go up two shillings. 
The increase and decrease in the duty was always to be double 
the fall and rise in the price. In other words, when the average 
price reached seventy shillings, wheat might be imported with a 
nominal duty of one shilling ; on the other hand, when the aver- 
age price fell to fifty shillings, the duty on foreign wheat would 
be forty shillings. 

After the bill had passed the Commons, the Liverpool Ministry 
fell to pieces, and a season of odious intrigue was followed by 
the accession of Canning. The Corn Bill went up to the Lords 
in due course. The Duke of Wellington, though he had been a 
member of the Liverpool Cabinet by which the bill had been sanc- 
tioned, now moved an amendment on it, and the new Ministry 
was defeated. Canning and Huskisson let the bill drop. The 
event which so speedily followed is one of the tragic pages in the 
history of English statesmen. Canning died a few weeks after 
the close of the session ; Lord Goclerich's abortive Ministry flick- 
ered into existence for four or five months, when it flickered out 
again; and before the end of the year the Duke of Wellington 
was prime minister. The great soldier was a narrow and sight- 
less statesman, and with his accession to power all the worse 
impulses of the privileged classes acquired new confidence and 
intensity. In every sphere the men of exclusion and restriction 
breathed more freely. 

The Duke introduced a new Corn Bill. This bad measure 
accepted Canning's principle, if we may give the name of prin- 
ciple to an empirical device ; but it carried the principle further 
in the wrong direction. In the bill of 1827, the starting-point 
had been the exaction of a twenty-shilling duty, when the home 
price was sixty shillings the quarter. According to the bill of 
1828, when the price in the home market was sixty-four shillings, 
the duty was twenty-three shillings and eightpence. The varia- 
tions in the amount of duty were not equal, as in the previous bill, 
but went by leaps. Thus, when wheat was at sixty- nine shillings, 

i March 1, 1827. 



% 



112 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1828-41. 

the duty was sixteen and eightpence ; and when the home price 
rose to seventy-three, then the duty fell to the nominal rate of a 
shilling. This was the Corn Law which Cobden and his friends 
rose up to overthrow. 1 

So far back as 1815, when that important measure had been 
passed restraining the introduction of wheat for home consump- 
tion unless the average price had reached eighty shillings for the 
quarter, the mischief of such legislation had been understood and 
described in Parliament. In the House of Lords the dissentients 
from the measure, only ten in number, had signed a protest, 
drawn up, as it has always been believed, by that independent 
and hard-headed statesman, Lord Grenville. The grounds of dis- 
sent were these : That all new restraints on commerce are bad 
in principle ; that such restraints are especially bad when they 
affect the food of the people ; that the results would not conduce 
to plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of price ; that such a measure 
levied a tax on the consumer, in order to give a bounty to the 
grower of corn. This was a just and unanswerable series of 
objections. Within six years (1821) a parliamentary committee 
was appointed to inquire into agricultural depression. 

If we turn to the effect of our regulations upon foreign coun- 
tries, there too they brought nothing but calamity. When grain 
rose to a starvation price in England, we entered the foreign 
markets ; the influx of our gold disturbed their exchanges, em- 
barrassed their merchants, and engendered all the mischief of 
speculation and gambling. As it was put by some speaker of the 
day, the question was, — " Are you to receive food from a foreign 
country quietly, reasonably, in payment for the manufactures 
which you send to them ? Or are you to go to them only in 
the moment of perturbation, of anxiety, of starvation, and say, 
Now we must have food at any rate, and we will pay any price, 
though the very foundations of your society should be shaken by 
the transaction ? " 

There was no essential bond between the maintenance of agri- 
cultural protection and Conservative policy. Burke, the most 
magnificent genius that the Conservative spirit has ever attracted, 
was one of the earliest assailants of legislative interference in the 
corn trade, and the important Corn Act of 1773 was inspired by 
his maxims. 2 There is no such thing, Burke said, as the landed 

1 9 Geo. IV., c. 60. 

2 This was the most liberal piece of legislation until the Act of Repeal in 1846. 
"When the home price was at or above 48s., imported wheat paid a nominal duty of 
6d., and the bounty on exportation ceased when the home price was 44s. "The 
Act of 1773 should not have been altered," says McCulloch, " unless to give greater 
freedom to the trade." 



Mi. 24-37.] THE CORN LAWS. 113 

interest separate from the trading interest ; and he who separates 
the interest of the consumer from the interest of the grower, 
starves the country. 1 Five and twenty years after this, in a lumi- 
nous tract often praised by Cobden, he again attacked a new form 
of the futile and mischievous system of dealing with agriculture 
as if it were different from any other branch of commerce, and 
denounced tampering with the trade in provisions as of all things 
the most dangerous. 2 Although, however, Conservative policy 
was not necessarily bound up with protection, the Tory party were 
committed to it by all the ties of personal interest. 

The Whigs ruled the country, save for a few months, for eleven 
years, from 1830 to 1841. In Lord Melbourne's Cabinet, in 1839, 
the Corn Laws were, as we have already seen, an open question. 3 
But two years later the financial position of the country had be- 
come so serious, and the credit and forces of the party had fallen 
so low, that it became necessary to enter upon a more decisive 
course. The expenditure had undergone a progressive increase, 
amounting in six years to four millions sterling on the annual 
estimates for the military and naval services alone, a rise of more 
than thirty per cent. For each of the last four years there had 
been a serious deficiency of income. In 1840 it was a million 
and a half. For 1841 it was given out as upwards of one million 
eight hundred and fifty thousand. Nor was this the result merely 
of an absence of fiscal skill in the government of the day. It was 
the sign, confirmed by the obstinate depression of trade and the 
sufferings of the population, of an industrial and commercial stag- 
nation which could only be dealt with by an economic revolution. 

Besides such considerations as these, there were the considera- 
tions of party strength. Macaulay's biographer quotes a signifi- 
cant passage from his diary. " The cry for free trade in corn," he 
wrote in 1839, and Macaulay was in the Cabinet, " seems to be 
very formidable. If the Ministers play their game well, they may 
now either triumph completely, or retire with honor. They have 
excellent cards, if they know how to use them." 4 Unluckily for 
themselves, they did not know how to use them ; and everybody 
was quite aware that their "conversion towards Free Trade was 
not the result of conviction, but was only the last device of a 
foundering party. 

In 1840 a committee on import duties had sat, and produced a 
striking and remarkable report, recommending an abandonment 
of the illiberal and exclusive policy of the past, and a radical 
simplification of the tariff by substituting for a multitude of 
duties, imposts on a small number of the most productive articles, 
the amount of the impost being calculated with a view to the 

1 Feb. 28, 1771. 2 Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. 1795. 

8 Above, pp. 97, 100. 4 Trevelyan's Life, ii. 87. 

8 



114 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

greatest consumption. This was in truth the base of Peel's great 
reform of 1842. But Lord Melbourne's Cabinet had no member 
of sufficient grasp and audacity in finance to accept boldly and 
comprehensively, as Peel afterwards did, the maxim that reduc- 
tion of duties is one way to increase of revenue. The Whig gov- 
ernment made the experiment timidly, and they met the common 
fate of those who take a great principle with half-heartedness and 
mistrust. They picked it up for want of a better. " I cannot 
conceive," said Peel, " a more lamentable position than that of a 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, seated on an empty chest, by the 
side of bottomless deficiencies, fishing for a budget." 

The proposals which the government had hit upon were these. 
They returned to the general principle of the budget which Lord 
Althorp had brought forward at the beginning of the Whig reign 
(1831) — the boldest budget, as it has justly been called, since 
the days of Pitt. 1 The main object of the commutation of duties, 
Lord Althorp had said, is the relief of the lower classes. " The 
best way of relieving them is by giving them employment ; and 
this can only be secured by reducing the taxes which most inter- 
fere with manufacturing industry." Among other devices for 
carrying this principle into practice, Lord Althorp had proposed 
to regulate the timber duties. 2 He had failed to carry that meas- 
ure against Peel's opposition, which was aided by a general opin- 
ion that the budget was unsound — an opinion mainly due to the 
startling proposal to levy a tax of a half per cent on transfers of 
funded property. Lord Althorp's successor now came back to 
some of his ideas. The question for the Cabinet to decide, as 
Lord John Kussell describes the situation, "was whether they 
would lower duties of a protective character on a great number of 
small articles, or whether they would attack the giant monopolies 
of sugar, of timber, and of corn." They adopted the latter course, 
but in the spirit of Huskisson, and not of Cobden. They preferred 
an ineffectual approach to Free Trade, to a complete repeal of 
protective duties. To touch the differential duties on sugar was 
to attack one at least of the strongest protective interests in Par- 
liament, and every other protected interest moved in sympathetic 
agitation. The more sanguine of the Ministers hoped to beat 
them by conciliating the manufacturing interest. This they ex- 
pected to reach through the Corn Laws. Lord John Eussell 
moved (May 7) to abolish the sliding scale of 1828, and to estab- 
lish instead a fixed eight-shilling duty upon wheat. 3 The battle 
turned upon the comparative merits of Free Trade and Protective 

1 Walpole's History of England, ii. 634. 

3 The 10s. duty on Canadian timber was to be raised to 20s., and the 55s. duty 
on Norwegian and other European timber lowered to 20s. 
8 5s. on rye ; 4s. 6d. on barley ; 3s. id. on oats. 



.Et.37.] THE CORN LAWS. 115 

duties, and in the special question of the Corn Laws upon the 
comparative merits of a graduated and a fixed duty. 

In a debate on a vote of confidence in 1840, Peel seemed to 
have advanced a step from the position which had irritated the 
Leaguers in 1839. He still considered a liberal protection to do- 
mestic agriculture indispensable, both in the special interests of 
agriculture, and the general interests of the community. He did 
not tie himself to the details of the existing law ; but he main- 
tained that a graduated duty, varying inversely with the price of 
corn, was far preferable to a fixed duty. He objected to a fixed 
duty on two grounds : first, on account of the great difficulty of 
determining the proper amount of it on any satisfactory data ; 
secondly, and chiefly, because he foresaw that it would be impos- 
sible to maintain that fixed duty under a very high price of corn, 
and that, if it were once withdrawn, there would be extreme diffi- 
culty in reimposing it. 

He now, in 1841, repeated what he had said the previous year. 
"Notwithstanding the formidable combination which has been 
formed against the Corn Laws," he said, "notwithstanding the 
declarations that either the total repeal or the substitution of a 
fixed duty for the present scale is the inevitable result of the 
agitation now going forward, I do not hesitate to avow my 
adherence to the opinion which I expressed last year, and now 
again declare, that my preference is decidedly in favor of a grad- 
uated scale rather than any fixed duty." 

Lord Melbourne had foreseen the fate of his Chancellor's budget. 
He was shrewd enough to be sure that a half-measure could never 
raise up so many friends among the manufacturers as to outweigh 
the united force of the agricultural and colonial interests. 1 In 
fact, no friends were raised up. No great body was conciliated, 
nor attracted, nor even touched with friendly interest ; and the 
chief reason for this stubborn apathy was, as Sir Robert Peel said, 
that nobody believed that the proposals of Ministers sprang from 
their spontaneous will, or that they had been adopted in conse- 
quence of the deliberate convictions of those who brought them 
forward. The conversion was too rapid. Only two years had 
gone since the Prime Minister had declared in his place that the 
repeal of the Corn Laws would be the most insane proposition that 
ever entered a human head. Lord Palmerston made a fine speech 
against the system of protective duties ; but men remembered 
that, two years before, he had voted against Mr. Villiers's motion 
to hear the members of the Manchester Association at the bar of the 
House. And the motives of so speedy a change were too plain. 

The first division as to the new budget was taken upon the 



Torrens's Life of Melbourne, ii. 358. 



iMRh 



ami 



116 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

sugar duties ; the Ministers found themselves in a minority of 
thirty-six. They still held on, and, instead of either resigning 
or dissolving immediately, astonished Parliament and the country 
by an announcement that they would go on with the old sugar 
duties, and would bring forward the question of the Corn Laws in 
the course of two or three weeks. Sir Eobert Peel declined 
to give them the chance, brought forward a vote of want of con- 
fidence, and carried it by a majority of one. 

The Ministers could not believe that the House of Commons 
represented the wishes of the country, and to the country they 
now appealed. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COBDEN ENTEKS PARLIAMENT — FIRST SESSION. 

The dissolution of Parliament took place at Midsummer. The 
League went actively into the campaign, though not with that in- 
flexibility in electoral policy which afterwards marked their opera- 
tions. They had to face the question which always perplexes the 
thorough-going advocates of any political principle, when they 
come to deal with political practice. In all such cases a section 
springs up which is prepared to go half-way. The Government 
had given to this section a cry. They were not prepared for total 
and immediate repeal, but they would go for a moderate fixed 
duty. The proposal of a fixed duty furnished the compromisers 
with a comfortable halting-place. They could thus claim to be 
Free Traders, without being suspected of the deadly sin of being 
extreme. The Council of the League were called upon to settle 
the proper attitude towards the men of the middle course. Were 
they to offer a fanatical resistance to the men of the middle party, 
thus shocking timid but reasonable sympathizers, and forfeiting 
their own character for prudence and discretion, qualities as 
essential to success as sincerity itself? They answered this 
question as might have been expected at that time. For them- 
selves, they held to their own demand for the entire liberation of 
the provision trade. Wherever there was a constituency ripe for 
carrying a candidate of this color, every exertion was to be made 
for securing a good candidate and insuring his return. Where 
friends of the League were in a constituency not yet enlightened 
enough to return a caudidate of League principles, then they 
ought to vote for a candidate who would support the measure of 
the Government. Considering both the moderate strength of the 



mt.il.'] COBDEN ENTERS PARLIAMENT. 117 

League at that time, and the state of the question in men's minds, 
it seems that this was the natural and judicious course. 

Some of the more dogged, however, among members of the 
League were hurt by what they took for a Laodicean halting 
between two opinions, and talked of withdrawing or lessening 
their subscriptions. Subscriptions are always a very sensitive 
point in agitations ; and Cobden found it worth while, after the 
elections were over, to write a letter to one of the more important 
of the protesters, explaining the principle on which the League 
had acted. " With reference to your complaint," he says, " that 
the League did not oppose the measure of the Government, I must 
remind you that the real governing power, the landed and other 
monopolists, held fast by the old law ; they never attempted to 
force the fixed duty upon us. We regarded the Government 
proposal, not as an offer from a party strong enough to concede 
anything, but merely as a step in advance taken by a portion of 
the aristocracy. It was not our business to attack them, whilst 
another party, more powerful than the Government and the 
people, were resolutely opposed to any concession. To my humble 
apprehension, it is as unwise as unjust in any kind of political 
warfare to assail those who are disposed to co-operate, however 
slightly, in the attempt to overthrow a formidable and uncompro- 
mising enemy." 

In the elections in the north of England the repealers were 
successful against both Whigs and Tories, and among those^ who 
succeeded w r as Cobden himself. " I am afraid," he wrote to his 
brother, " you will be vexed on landing in England to find me 
Member for Stockport. I had fully, as you know, determined 
not to go to Parliament. I stood out. The Bolton and Stockport 
folks both got requisitions to me insuring my return. I declined. 
It was then that the Stockport people put the screw upon me, by 
a large deputation confessing their inability to agree amongst 
themselves upon any other man who could turn out the Major. 
They offered me carte blanche as to my attendance in London, and 
as to the time of my retaining the seat. I was over-persuaded 
by my Manchester partisans and have yielded, and the election 
is secure. You must not vex yourself, for I am quite resolved 
that it shall not be the cause of imposing either additional expense 
on my mode of living, or any increased call upon my time for 
public objects. I did not dream of this, as you very well 
know." i 

" I have a right to expect other men of business," he wrote to 
a manufacturer at Warrington, urging a contest in that borough, 
" for I am doing it myself much against my wish. I offered to 

1 To F. Cobden, June 16, 1841. 



118 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

give a hundred pounds towards the expenses of another candidate 
in my stead for Stockport, and to canvass for him for a week ; and 
it was only when the electors declared that they could not agree 
to another, and would not be able to oust the bread-taxers with- 
out me, that I consented to stand." 

The League, in fact, put a strong pressure upon him, and we 
may perhaps believe that Cobden's resistance to the urgency of 
his political friends was not very stubborn. He must have felt 
by invincible instinct that only through a seat in Parliament 
could he secure an effective hearing for his arguments. It is un- 
certain whether the opinion of the constituency which had rejected 
him in 1837, had really been excited by the Free Trade, discus- 
sion, or whether the motives of the voters were merely personal. 
Shrewd electioneerers have a maxim that a candidate is sure to win 
any given seat in time, if he is only tenacious enough. Cobden 
was returned by a triumphant majority. " The Stockport affair," 
he wrote, " was carried with unexpected eclat. We drubbed the 
Major so soundly that at one o'clock he resigned. We could have 
beaten him easily by two to one. My committee worked to ad- 
miration. Two hundred electors were up all the night previous 
to polling, including the mill-owners .... who neither changed 
their clothes nor closed their eyes for thirty-six hours. These 
men were against me at the former election. Upon the whole 
the elections will give Peel a majority of thirty or forty. So much 
the better. We shall do something in opposition." l 

It proved that Sir Robert Peel had a majority, not of thirty or 
forty, but of more than ninety. Lord Melbourne, however, did 
not anticipate the practice of our own day by resigning before the 
meeting of the hostile Parliament. The Ministers put into the 
Queen's speech as good an account as they could of their policy, 
and awaited their fate. Cobden took his seat on the first day of 
the session. " Yesterday," he says, " I went down to the House 
to be sworn to renounce the Pope and the Pretender. Then I 
went into the ■ Treasury, and heard Lord John deliver his last 
dying speech and confession to his parliamentary minority. He 
gave us the substance of the Queen's speech, which is in the 
Chronicle to-day. I cannot learn what the Tories intend to do 
to-night, but I suppose they will try to avoid committing them- 
selves against the Pree Trade measures. It is allowed on all 
sides that they fear discussion as they do death. It is reported 
that the old Duke advises his party not to force themselves on 
the Queen, but to let the Whigs go on till the reins, fairly drop 
out of their hands. The Queen seems to be more violently opposed 
than ever to the Tories." 2 

i To F. Cobden, July 3, 1841. 1 To F. Cobden, August 24, 1841. 



Ms. 37.] COBDEN ENTERS PARLIAMENT. 119 

The Queen had no choice. An amendment was moved upon 
the address in both Houses, and carried in the Commons by the 
irresistible majority of ninety-one. The vote was taken at five 
in the morning (August 28), and in the afternoon of the same 
day Lord Melbourne went down to Windsor to resign his post. 
Within a few clays that great administration was formed which 
contained not only able Tories like Lord Lyndhurst, but able se- 
ceders from the Whigs like Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham ; 
which commanded an immense majority in both Houses ; which 
was led by a chief of consummate sagacity ; and which was at 
last, five years afterwards, slowly broken to pieces by the work of 
Cobden and the League. 

Cobden made his maiden speech in the debate which preceded 
this great official revolution. " I was induced," he writes to his 
brother, " to speak last night at about nine o'clock. We thought 
the debate would have been brought to a close. The Tories were 
doggedly resolved from the first not to enter upon any discussion 
of the main question, and the discussion, if it could be called one, 
went on as flat as possible. My speech had one good effect. I 
called up a booby who let fly at the manufacturers, very much to 
the chagrin, I suspect, of the leader of his party. It is now 
thought that the Tories must come out and discuss in self-defence 
the Free Trade question, and if not, they will be damaged by the 
arguments on the other side. All my friends say I did well. 
But I feel it very necessary to be cautious in speaking too much. 
I shall be an observer for some time." 1 

We now see that Cobden's maiden speech was much more than 
a success in the ordinary sense of attracting the attention of that 
most difficult of all audiences. It sounded a new key, and startled 
men by an accent that was strange in the House of Commons. 
The thoughtful among them recognized the rare tone of reality, 
and the note of a man dealing with things and not words. He 
produced that singular and profound effect which is perceived in 
English deliberative assemblies, when a speaker leaves party re- 
criminations, abstract argument, and commonplaces of sentiment, 
in order to inform his hearers of telling facts in the condition of 
the nation. Cobden reminded the House that it was the condi- 
tion of the nation, and not the interests of a class, or the abstract 
doctrines of the economist, that cried for a relief which it was 
in the power of the legislature to bestow. This was the point of 
the speech. In spite of the strong wish of everybody on the side 
of the majority, and of many on the side of the minority, to keep 
the Corn Law out of the debate, Cobden insisted that the Corn 
Law w T as in reality the only matter which at that moment was 

1 To F. Cobden, August 26, 1841. 



120 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

worth debating at all. The family of a nobleman, he showed the 
House, paid to the bread tax about one halfpenny on every hun- 
dred pounds of income, while the effect of the tax on the family 
of the laboring man was not less than twenty per cent. A fact 
of this kind, as they said of Pericles's speeches, left a sting in the 
minds of his hearers. The results of the injustice were seen in 
the misery of the population. A great meeting of ministers of 
religion of all sects had been held in Manchester a few days before, 
and Cobden told the House something of the destitution through- 
out the country, to which these men had borne testimony. 

" At that meeting," he said, " most important statements of 
facts were made relating to the condition of the laboring classes. 
He would not trouble the House by reading those statements ; 
but they showed that in every district of the country .... the 
condition of the great body of her Majesty's laboring population 
had deteriorated wofully within the last ten years, and more 
especially within the last three years ; and that, in proportion as 
the price of food increased, in the same proportion the comforts 
of the working-classes had diminished. One word with respect 
to the manner in which his allusion to this meeting was received. 
He did not come there to vindicate the conduct of these Christian 
men in having assembled in order to take this subject into con- 
sideration. The people who had to judge them were their own 
congregations. There were at that meeting members of the Es- 
tablished Church, of the Church of Borne, Independents, Baptists, 
members of the Church of Scotland and of the Secession Church, 
Methodists, and indeed ministers of every other denomination; 
and if he were disposed to impugn the character of those divines, 
he felt he should be casting a stigma and a reproach upon the 
great body of professing Christians in his country. He happened 
to be the only member of the House present at that meeting ; 
and he might be allowed to state that when he heard the tales of 
misery there described ; when he heard these ministers declare 
that members of their congregations were kept away from places 
of worship during the morning service, and only crept out under 
cover of the darkness of night; when they described others as 
unfit to receive spiritual consolation, because they were sunk so 
low in physical destitution ; that the attendance at Sunday- 
schools was falling off; when he heard these and such like state- 
ments ; when he who believed that the Corn Law, the provision 
monopoly, was at the bottom of all that was endured, heard those 
statements, and from such authority, he must say that he rejoiced 
to see gentlemen of such character come forward, and like Na- 
than, when he addressed the owner of flocks and herds who had 
plundered the poor man of his only lamb, say unto the doer of 
injustice, whoever he might be : ' Thou art the man.' The peo- 



Mi. 37-] COBDEN ENTERS PARLIAMENT. 121 

pie, through their ministers, had protested against the Corn Laws. 
.... When they found so many ministers of religion, with- 
out any sectarian differences, joining heart and hand in a great 
cause, there could be no doubt of their earnestness Eng- 
lishmen had a respect for rank, for wealth — perhaps too much ; 
they felt an attachment to the laws of their country ; but there 
was another attribute in the minds of Englishmen — there was a 
permanent veneration for sacred things ; and when their sympa- 
thy and respect and deference were enlisted in what they believed 
to be a sacred cause, you and yours [addressing the Protectionists] 
will vanish like chaff before the whirlwind." 

One or two simpletons laughed at an appeal to evidence from 
such a source ; but it .was felt that, though they might jeer at 
the speaker as a Methodist parson, and look down upon him as a 
manufacturer, yet he represented a new force with which the old 
parties would one day have to deal. In the country his speech ' 
excited the deep interest of that great class, who are habitually 
repelled by the narrow passions and seeming insincerity of ordi- 
nary politics. 

His friends in the north were delighted by the vigor and 
alacrity of their champion. With the sanguine assurance of all 
people who have convinced themselves of the goodness of their 
cause, and are very earnest in wishing to carry it, they were cer- 
tain that Cobden's arguments must speedily convert Parliament 
and the Ministry. " It is pleasant," Cobden wrote to his brother, 
" to learn that my maiden effort has pleased our good friends. I 
have some letters from Manchester with congratulations. It is 
very pleasant, but I must be careful not to be carried off my legs. 
Stanley scowls and Peel smiles at me, both meaning mischief. 
There is no other man on the other side that I have heard, who is 
at all formidable. I observe there are a great many busy men of 
our party who like to see their names in print, and who therefore 
take up small matters continually ; they are very little attended 
to by the House. With these men I shall not interfere, and they 
will all aid me in obtaining a fair hearing on my great question. 
We had a curious scene of jealousy and bickering to-day. Shar- 
inan Crawford brought on an amendment to the address without 
consulting anybody. 1 Eoebuck, who is as wayward and impul- 
sive as he is clever, walked out of the House with a tail of four 
or five, whilst hearty old Wallace of Greenock cried out, ' Who 
cares for you ? who cares ? ' amidst the. roars of the House. I can 

1 When the House met to receive the Report on the Amended Address, Mr. 
Crawford proposed an amendment, to the effect that the distress deplored in the 
Speech was to be attributed to the non-representation of the working classes in 
Parliament. The Radicals were not unanimous, and the amendment was defeated 
by 283 against 39. 



122 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

see that Boebuck will never do any good for our Free Trade party. 
He does not see the importance of our principle, and therefore 
cannot feel a proper interest in it. He is a good deal in commu- 
nication with Brougham, who, by the way, sent word by Sturge 
to-day that he wants to see me. I find myself beset by cliques, 
but my abstemious and ruminating turn will make me entirely 
safe from all such intrigues and influences." 1 

" From what I can hear," he wrote a month later, " it appears 
that Peel has no plan in view of any kind, with respect to the corn 
question. The aristocracy and people are gaping at him, wonder- 
ing what he is going to do, and his head will be at work with no 
higher ambition than to gull both parties. I am of opinion that 
there never was a better moment than at present for carrying the 
question out of doors. If there be determination enough in the 
minds of the people to make a vigorous demonstration during the 
recess, he will give way ; if not, he will stick to his sliding scale 
and the aristocracy. There is a rumor very industriously spread 
in London that we are going to have a better trade. This is one 
in the chapter of accidents upon which Peel depends for an escape 
into smooth water." 

Now, as throughout the whole of the struggle, Cobden kept up 
the closest relations with the local leaders of the movement in 
the north. One of the most baneful effects of the concentration 
and intensity of parliamentary life is that members cease to in- 
spire themselves with the more wholesome air of the nation out- 
side. From the beginning to the end of his career, Cobden 
cared very little about the opinion of the House, and hoped very 
little from its disinterestedness. He never greatly valued the 
judgment of parliamentary coteries. It was the mind of the 
country that he always sought to know and to influence. And 
though he had proper confidence in the soundness of his own 
judgment, he was wholly free from the weakness of thinking that 
his judgment could stand alone. He was invariably eager to 
collect the opinions of his fellow-workers at Manchester, and not 
only to collect them, but to be guided by them. 

" It is quite evident," he wrote to Mr. George Wilson, towards 
the end of September, " that Peel has made up his mind to pro- 
rogue without entering upon the consideration of the Corn Law. 
The business of the session will now be hurried on and brought to 
a close probably by the end of the week. Under these circum- 
stances I wish to know the opinion of our friends in Manchester 
as to the course which it would be advisable for the few Anti-Corn- 
Law members now in London to pursue. Will you be good enough 
at once to call together the whole of the Council, and consult with 

1 To F. Cobden, August 29, 1841. 



JSt.87.] COBDEN ENTERS PARLIAMENT. 123 

as many judicious people as you can, and determine whether you 
think anything, and what, can be done to promote the cause ? 
The main question for you to decide is whether it be advisable for 
Mr. Villiers to give notice of a motion for discussing the question 
before the Houses are prorogued. The Tories would shirk the 
discussion in the same way as heretofore. Do you think under 
such circumstances that it would advance our cause by persisting 
in a one-sided debate ? I think the general opinion up here is that 
the way in which Peel has hitherto evaded the question, has done 
us good service by dissatisfying the public mind with the new Min- 
istry. But we are not good judges of the public feeling, who are 
actors in a sphere of our own, where we are apt to be acted upon 
by our own preconceived opinions. You are in a better position 
for forming a correct judgment as to the state of the public mind. 
The question for you to decide really is whether the feeling out 
of doors would back a small party in the House struggling for a 
hearing of their cause now. Do you think there is a desire for 
us to make a pertinacious stand now ? Be good enough to take 
the matter into your calm consideration, and give me the result 
of your deliberation by return. Mr. Villiers, who is now installed 
as our leader, would, I have no doubt, act upon your well-con- 
sidered judgment. I would merely add that you would do well 
to take into consideration the probable amount of public demon- 
stration to be made by memorials to the Queen during the next 
week. You will be able to form an estimate of the extent to 
which the example of Manchester will be followed in other places, 
and which must form a material consideration in deciding upon 
the course we ought to take in Parliament." * 

Cobden made two other speeches in the course of the autumn 
session, after the re-election of the Ministers (Sept. 16 — Oct. 
7). Lord John Russell reproached the new Premier for asking 
for time to prepare his schemes for repairing the national finances. 
Peel justly asked him why, if they were so convinced of the ur- 
gency of the evils inflicted on the country by the Corn Laws, if 
they thought that commercial distress was to be attributed to them, 
and that these laws were at the root of the sufferings of the 
working class — why they had allowed them to remain an open 
question, and why they remained in office, allowing Lord Mel- 
bourne to hold opposite opinions. Cobden rose to protest against 
treating the subject as a party question, and against making the 
House a mere debating club. He insisted on trying to keep 
the mind of the House fixed on the privation and distress in the 
manufacturing districts, and he urged the Minister not to postpone 
the question of the Corn Laws over the coming winter. 

1 To G. Wilson, September, 1841. 



124 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

". . . . I sat through the voting of money, vastly edified and 
scandalized at the way in which the poor devils of tax-payers are 
robbed. The sum of 100,000/. for arming and clothing militia in 
Canada, lighthouses in Jamaica, negro education, bishops all over 

the world, &c, &c, in goodly proportions The people are, 

I am afraid, fit for nothing better. I did not offer an objection, 
for it would have been ridiculous to do so. It did, however, cost 
me some efforts to hold my tongue. I am glad that you did not 
think my second speech too strong. I was not quite satisfied with 
it myself. It was, however, badly reported. I was rather better 
pleased with my third, on Friday, when I found there was an 
effort made at first to annoy me, on the part of some young 
obscures, one of whom followed me with an evidently ' conned 
reply,' in which he had quotations from my speech at Manchester, 
about the Oxford education, the Ilissus, Scamander, &c. His 
sjDeech was not reported. It was a mere prize essay oration, which, 
thanks to the practical turn that has been given to subjects of 
debate, finds no relish in the house now-a-days. It is quite clear 
that I am looked upon as a Gothic invader, and the classicals w T ill 
criticise me unmercifully. But I have vitality enough to rise 
above the little trips which my heels may get at first. Ultimately 
these attacks will only give me a surer foothold. The part of my 
last speech that struck home the most was at the close. I had 
observed an evident disposition on the Tory side to set up as 
philanthropists. Old Sir Eobert Inglis sat with his hands folded 
ready to sigh, and, if needful, to weep over a case of church desti- 
tution ; he delivered a flaming panegyric upon Lord Ashley the 
other night, styling him the friend of the unprotected, after he had 
been canting about the sufferings of lunatics. Added to this, 
Peel has been professing the utmost anxiety for paupers, and Sir 
Eardley Wilmot is running after Sturge. When I told them at 
the close of my speech that I had been quietly observing all this, 
but it would not all do unless they showed their consistency by 
untaxing the poor man's loaf, there was a stillness and attention 
on the other side very much like the conduct of men looking 
aghast at the first consciousness of being found out. My style of 
speaking pleases the gallery people, and has attracted the notice 
of the Eadicals out of doors. But the Tories, especially the young 
fry, regard me in no other way than as a petard would be viewed 
by people in a powder-magazine, a thing to be trampled on, kicked 
about, or put out in any way they can." 1 

When Cobden rose on this last occasion there were cries of 
impatience from the ministerial side of the House, but this did 
not prevent him from persevering with an argumentative remon- 

1 To F. Cobden, Sept. 27, 1841. 



Mi. 37.] COBDEN ENTERS PARLIAMENT. 125 

strance against the incredulity or apathy with which the Govern- 
ment treated the distress of the manufacturing towns. The point 
which he pressed most keenly was the interchange of food and 
manufactures between England and the United States that would 
instantly follow repeal. He quoted from a petition to the Con- 
gress of the United States. The petitioner argued that, if the 
English landowners would only be satisfied with a moderate duty 
in lieu of the existing sliding scale, there would then be a constant 
market for wheat in England, and the whole of the return would 
be required in British manufactured goods ; the consequence of 
which would be that every spindle, wheel, and hammer in the 
manufacturing district in this country would be set free. 

" Suppose now," Cobden went on, " that it were but the Thames 
instead of the Atlantic which separated the two countries — sup- 
pose that the people on one side were mechanics and artisans, 
capable by their industry of producing a vast supply of manufac- 
tures ; and that the people on the other side were agriculturists, 
producing infinitely more than they could themselves consume of 
corn, pork, and beef — fancy these two separate peoples anxious 
and willing to exchange with each other the produce of their 
common industries, and fancy a demon rising from the middle of 
the river — for I cannot imagine anything human in such a posi- 
tion and performing such an office — fancy a demon rising from 
the river, and holding in his hand an Act of Parliament, and 
saying, ' You shall not supply each other's wants ; ' and then, in 
addition to that, let it be supposed that this demon said to his 
victim with an affected smile, ' This is for your benefit .; I do it 
entirely for your protection ! ' Where was the difference between 
the Thames and the Atlantic ? " 

It was after a vigorous and persistent description of the priva- 
tions of the people in the North, that he turned sharply round 
upon the men whom he denounced for drawing the attention of 
Parliament away from the real issues to vague questions of phi- 
lanthropy. " When I go down to the manufacturing districts," 
he said, " I know that I shall be returning to a gloomy scene. I 
know that starvation is stalking through the land, and that men 
are perishing for want of the merest necessaries of life. When I 
witness this, and recollect that there is a law which especially 
provides for keeping our population in absolute want, I cannot 
help attributing murder to the Legislature of this country : and 
wherever I stand, whether here or out-of-doors, I will denounce 
that system of legislative murder." He then turned to one mem- 
ber who was a great friend of negro slaves, and to another who 
was a great friend of Church Establishment, and who had lately 
complimented Lord Ashley as the great friend of humanity gen- 
erally, and of factory children in particular. " When I see a dis- 



126 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

position among you," lie said, " to trade in humanity, I will not 
question your motives, but this I will tell you, that if you would 
give force and grace to your professions of humanity, it must not 
be confined to the negro at the antipodes, nor to the building of 
churches, nor to the extension of Church establishments, nor to 
occasional visits to factories to talk sentiment over factory chil- 
dren — you must untax the people's bread." 

Cobden's intervention in debate was more than a parliamentary 
incident. It was the symbol of a new spirit of self-assertion in a 
great social order. The Eeform Bill had admitted manufacturing- 
towns to a share of representation. Cobden lost no time in 
vindicating the reality of this representation. The conflict of the 
next five years was not merely a battle about a customs duty ; it 
was a struggle for political influence and social equality between 
the landed aristocracy and the great industrialists. Of this, an 
incident in the debates of the following session will furnish us 
with a sufficiently graphic illustration. It is only by reading the 
correspondence of that time, and listening to the men who still 
survive, without having left its passions behind them, that we 
realize the angry astonishment with which the old society of 
England beheld the first serious attempts of a new class to assert 
its claim to take a foremost place. Many years after the fight 
began, when Mr. Bright was unseated at Manchester, we shall 
find that Cobden laid most stress on the ingratitude of the manu- 
facturers of the northern capital in forgetting that Mr. Bright had 
been the " valiant defender of their order." 



CHAPTER IX. 

COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 

In the autumn of 1841 there happened what proved to be a 
signal event in the annals of the League, and in Cobden's per- 
sonal history. He and Mr. Bright made that solemn compact 
which gave so strong an impulse to the movement, and was the 
beginning of an affectionate and noble friendship that lasted 
without a cloud or a jar until Cobden's death. 

Mr. Bright, who was seven years younger than Cobden, had 
made his acquaintance some time before the question of the 
Corn Laws had come up. He had gone over in the year 183(L 
or 1837 to Manchester, to call upon Cobden, "to ask him if he 
would be kind enough to come to Rochdale, and to speak at an 



JJr.87.] COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 127 

education meeting which was about to be held in the schoolroom 
of the Baptist chapel in West Street of that town. I found him 
in his office in Mosley Street. I introduced myself to him. I 
told him what I wanted. His countenance lit up with pleasure 
to find that there were others that were working in this question, 
and he without hesitation agreed to come. He came, and he 
spoke ; and though he was then so young as a speaker, yet the 
qualities of his speech were such as remained with him so long 
as he was able to speak at all — clearness, logic, a conversa- 
tional eloquence, a persuasiveness which, when conjoined with 
the absolute truth which there was in his eye and in his coun- 
tenance — a persuasiveness which it was almost impossible to 
resist." 

Then came the gradual formation of the League, Cobden's 
election to Parliament, and the close of his first session. "It 
was in September, in the year 1841," said Mr. Bright. "The 
sufferings throughout the country were fearful ; and you who 
live now. but were not of age to observe what was passing in the 
country then, can have no idea of the state of your country in 

that year At that time I was at Leamington, and I was, 

on the day when Mr. Cobden called upon me — for he happened 
to be there at the time on a visit to some relatives — I was in 
the depths of grief, I might almost say of despair ; for the light 
and sunshine of my house had been extinguished. All that was 
left on earth of my young wife, except the memory of a sainted 
life and of a too brief happiness, was lying still and cold in the 
chamber above us. Mr. Cobden called upon me as his friend, and 
addressed me, as you might suppose, with words of condolence. 1 
After a time he looked up and said, 'There are thousands of 
houses in England at this moment where wives, .mothers, and 
children are dying of hunger. Now,' he said, 'when the first 
paroxysm of your grief is past, I would advise you to come with 
me, and we will never rest till the Corn Law is repealed.' I 
accepted his invitation. I knew that the description he had 
given of the homes of thousands was not an exaggerated descrip- 
tion. I felt in my conscience that there was a work which 
somebody must do, and therefore I accepted his invitation, and 
from that time we never ceased to labor hard on behalf of the 
resolution which we had made." 

"For seven years," Mr. Bright says, "the discussion on that 
one question — whether it was good for a man to have half a 
loaf or a whole loaf — for seven years the discussion was main- 
tained, I will not say with doubtful result, for the result was 
never doubtful, and never could be in such a cause ; but for five 

1 Mr. Bright lost his wife on the 10th of September, and Cobden's visit to him 
was on the 13th. 



128 LIFE OF COBDEN. ,[1841. 

years or more [1841-46] we devoted ourselves without stint; 
every working hour almost was given up to the discussion and 
to the movement in connection with this question." 1 

This is an appropriate place for considering some of the qualifi- 
cations that Cobden brought to the mission which he and his ally 
thus imposed upon themselves. In speaking of him I may seem 
to ignore fellow- workers whose share in the agitation was hardly 
less important than his own ; without whose zeal, disinterested- 
ness, and intelligence, the work of himself and Mr. Bright would 
have been of little effect, and could never have been undertaken. 
No history of the League could be perfect which did not com- 
memorate the names and labors of many other able men, who 
devoted themselves with hardly inferior energy to the exhausting 
work of organization and propagandism. But these pages have 
no pretensions to tell the whole story ; they only are concerned 
with so much of it as relates to one of its heroes. " We were not 
even the first," said, Mr. Bright, " though afterwards, perhaps, we 
became the foremost before the public. But there were others 
before us." The public imagination was struck by the figures of 
the pair who had given themselves up to a great public cause. 
The alliance between them far more than doubled the power that 
either could have exerted without the other. The picture of two 
plain men leaving their homes and their business, and going over 
the length and breadth of the land to convert the nation, had 
about it something apostolic : it presented something so far re- 
moved from the stereotyped ways of political activity, that this 
circumstance alone, apart from the object for which they were 
pleading, touched and affected people, and gave a certain dramatic 
interest to the long pilgrimages of the two men who had only 
become orators because they had something to say, which they 
were intent on bringing their hearers to believe, and which 
happened to be true, wise, and just. 

The agitator has not been a very common personage in English 
history. The greatest that has ever been seen was O'Connell, and 
I do not know of any other, until the time of the League, who 
may be placed even as second to him. In the previous century 
Wilkes had made a great figure, and Wilkes was a man of real 
power and energy. But he w 7 as rather the symbol of a strong 
popular sentiment, than its inspirer ; and he may be more truly 
said to have been borne on the crest of the movement, than to 
have given to it force or volume. 

Cobden seemed to have few of the endowments of an agitator, 

1 This and the preceding passages are from the very beautiful address delivered 
by Mr. Bright, when he unveiled the statue of his friend at Bradford, July 25, 
1877. The address is to be found in Mr. Thorold Rogers's volume of Public 
Addresses of John Bright, pp. 354-366. 



Mt. 37.] COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 129 

as that character is ordinarily thought of. He had no striking- 
physical gifts of the histrionic kind. He had one physical quality 
which must be ranked first among the secondary endowments of 
great workers. Later in life he said, " If I had not had the 
faculty of sleeping like a dead fish, in five minutes after the most 
exciting mental effort, and with the certainty of having oblivion 
for six consecutive hours, I should not have been alive now." In 
his early days, he was slight in frame and build. He afterwards 
grew nearer to portliness. He had a large and powerful head, and 
the indescribable charm of a candid eye. His features were not 
of a commanding type; but they were illuminated and made 
attractive by the brightness of intelligence, of sympathy, and of 
earnestness. About the mouth there was a curiously winning 
mobility and play. His voice was clear, varied in its tones, sweet, 
and penetrating ; but it had scarcely the compass, or the depth, 
or the many resources, that have usually been found in orators 
who have drawn great multitudes of men to listen to them. Of 
nervous fire, indeed, he had abundance, though it was not the fire 
which flames up in the radiant colors of a strong imagination. It 
was rather the glow of a thoroughly convinced reason, of intellect- 
ual ingenuity, of argumentative keenness. It came from trans- 
parent honesty, thoroughly clear ideas, and a very definite purpose. 
These were exactly the qualities that Cobden's share in the work 
demanded. Any professor could have supplied a demonstration 
of the economic fallacy of monopoly. Fox, the Unitarian minis- 
ter, was better able to stir men's spirits by pictures, which were 
none the less true for being very florid, of the social miseries that 
came of monopoly. In Cobden the fervor and the logic were 
mixed, and his fervor was seen to have its source in the strength 
of his logical confidence. 

It has often been pointed out how the two great spokesmen of 
the League were the complements of one another ; how their gifts 
differed, so that one exactly covered the ground which the other 
was predisposed to leave comparatively untouched. The differ- 
ences between them, it is true, were not so many as the points of 
resemblance. If in Mr. Bright there was a deeper austerity, in 
both there was the same homeliness of allusion, and the same 
graphic plainness. Both avoided the stilted abstractions of rhet- 
oric, and neither was ever afraid of the vulgarity of details. In 
Cobden as in Bright, we feel that there was nothing personal or 
small, and that what they cared for so vehemently were great 
causes. There was a resolute standing aloof from the small things 
of party, which would be almost arrogant, if the whole texture of 
what they had to say were less thoroughly penetrated with politi- 
cal morality and with humanity. Then there came the points of 
difference. Mr. Bright had all the resources of passion alive 



130 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

within his breast. He was carried along by vehement political 
anger, and, deeper than that, there glowed a wrath as stern as that 
of an ancient prophet. To cling to a mischievous error seemed 
to him to savor of moral depravity and corruption of heart. 
What he saw was the selfishness of the aristocracy and the land- 
lords, and he was too deeply moved by- hatred of this, to care to 
deal very patiently with the bad reasoning which their own self- 
interest inclined his adversaries to mistake for good. His invec- 
tive was not the expression of mere irritation, but a profound and 
menacing passion. Hence he dominated his audiences from a 
height, while his companion rather drew them along after him as 
friends and equals. Cobden was by no means incapable of passion, 
of violent feeling, or of vehement expression. His fighting qual- 
ities were in their own way as formidable as Mr. Bright's ; and 
he had a way of dropping his jaw and throwing back his head, 
when he took off the gloves for an encounter in good earnest, 
which was not less alarming to his opponents than the more 
sombre style of his colleague. Still, it was not passion to which 
we must look for the secret of his oratorical success. I have 
asked many scores of those who knew him, Conservatives as well 
as Liberals, what this secret was, and in no single case did my 
interlocutor fail to begin, and in nearly every case he ended as he 
had begun, with the word persuasiveness. Cobden made his way 
to men's hearts by the union which they saw in him of simplicity, 
earnestness, and conviction, with a singular facility of exposition. 
This facility consisted in a remarkable power of apt and homely 
illustration, and a curious ingenuity in framing the argument that 
happened to be wanted. Besides his skill in thus hitting on the 
right argument, Cobden had the oratorical art of presenting it in 
the way that made its admission to the understanding of a listener 
easy and undenied. He always seemed to have made exactly the 
right degree of allowance for the difficulty with which men follow 
a speech, as compared with the ease of following the same argu- 
ment on a printed page, which they may con and ponder until 
their apprehension is complete. Then men were attracted by his 
mental alacrity, by the instant readiness with which he turned 
round to grapple with a new objection. Prompt and confident, 
lie was never at a loss, and he never hesitated. This is what Mr. 
Disraeli meant when he spoke of Cobden's " sauciness." It had 
an excellent effect, because everybody knew that it sprang, not 
from levity or presumption, but from a free mastery of his subject. 
If in one sense the Corn Laws did not seem a promising theme 
for a popular agitation, they were excellently fitted to bring out 
Cobden's peculiar strength, for they dealt with firm matter and 
demonstrable inferences, and this was the region where Cobden's 
powers naturally exercised themselves. In such an a]3peal to 



Mc. 37.] COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 131 

sentiment and popular passion as the contemporary agitation of 
O'Connell for Bepeal, he could have played no leading part. 1 
Where knowledge and logic were the proper instruments, Cobden 
was a master. 

Enormous masses of material for the case poured every week 
into the offices of the League. All the day long Cobden was talk- 
ing with men who had something to tell him. Correspondents 
from every quarter of the land plied him with information. Yet 
he was never overwhelmed by the volume of the stream. He 
was incessantly on the alert for a useful fact, a telling illustration, 
a new fallacy to expose. So dexterously did he move through 
the ever-growing piles of matter, that it seemed to his companions 
as if nothing apposite ever escaped him, and nothing irrelevant 
ever detained him. 

A political or religious agitator must not be afraid of incessant 
repetition. Eepetition is his most effective instrument. The fas- 
tidiousness which is proper to literature, and which makes a man 
dread to say the same thing twice, is in the field of propagandism 
mere impotency. This is one reason why even the greatest agi- 
tators in causes which have shaken the world, are often among 
the least interesting men in history. Cobden had moral and 
social gifts which invest him with a peculiar attraction, and will 
long make his memory interesting as that of a versatile nature ; 
but he was never afraid of the agitator's art of repeating his for- 
mula, his principles, his illustrations, his phrases, with untiring 
reiteration. 

Though he abounded in matter, Cobden can hardly be described 
as copious. He is neat and pointed, nor is his argument ever left 
unclinched ; but he permits himself no large excursions. What 
he was thinking of was the matter immediately in hand, the 
audience before his eyes, the point that . would tell best then 
and there, and would be most likely to remain in men's recol- 
lections. For such purposes copiousness is ill-fitted ; that is for 
the stately leisure of the pulpit. Cobden's task was to leave in 
his hearer's mind a compact answer to each current fallacy, and 
to scotch or kill as many protectionist sophisms as possible 
within the given time. What is remarkable is, that while he 
kept close to the matter and substance of his case, and resorted 
comparatively little to sarcasm, humor, invective, pathos, or the 
other elements that are catalogued in manuals of rhetoric, yet no 
speaker was ever further removed from prosiness, or came into 
more real and sympathetic contact with his audience. His speak- 
ing was thoroughly business-like, and yet it was never dull. It 
was not, according to the old definition of oratory, reason fused in 

1 See Mr. McCarthy's History of Our Own Times, i. 340, 348. 



132 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

passion,, but reason fused by the warmth of personal geniality. 
No one has ever reached Cobden's pitch of success as a platform 
speaker, with a style that seldom went beyond the vigorous and 
animated conversation of a bright and companionable spirit. 

After all, it is not tropes and perorations that make the popu- 
lar speaker; it is the whole impression of his personality. We 
who only read them can discern certain admirable qualities in 
Cobden's speeches; aptness in choosing topics, lucidity in pre- 
senting them, buoyant confidence in pressing them home. But 
those who listened to them felt much more than all this. They 
were delighted by mingled vivacity and ease, by directness, by 
spontaneousness and reality, by the charm, so effective and so un- 
common between a speaker and his audience, of personal friendli- 
ness and undisguised cordiality. Let me give an illustration of 
this. Cobden once had an interview with Eowland Hill, some 
time in 1838, and gave evidence in favor of the proposed reform 
in the postage. Rowland Hill, in writing to him afterwards, 
excuses himself for troubling Cobden with his private affairs : 
" Your conversation, evidence, and letters have created a feeling 
in my mind so like that which one entertains towards an old 
friend, that I am apt to forget that I have met you but once." It 
was just the same with bodies of men as it was with individuals. 
No public speaker was ever so rapid and so successful in estab- 
lishing genial relations of respect without formality, and intimacy 
without familiarity. One great source of this, in Mr. Bright's 
words, was " the absolute truth that shone in his eye and in his 
countenance." 

I have spoken of Cobden's patience in acquiring and shaping 
matter. This was surpassed by his inexhaustible patience in 
dealing with the mental infirmities of those whom it was his 
business to persuade. He was wholly free from the unmeasured 
anger against human stupidity, which is itself one of the most 
provoking forms of that stupidity. Cobden was not without the 
faculty of intellectual contempt, and he had the gift of irony ; but 
in the contempt was no presumption, and it was irony without 
truculence. There came a time when he found that he could do 
nothing with men ; when he could hardly even hope to find an 
audience that would suffer him to speak. But during the work 
of the League, at any rate, he had none of that bias against his 
own countrymen to which the reformer in every nation is so 
liable, because upon the reformer their defects press very closely 
and obstructively, while he has no reason to observe the same or 
worse defects in other nations. 

Tt has often been said that Cobden was a good" Englishman, 
and he was so, in spite of finer qualities which our neighbors are 
not willing to allow to us. London society, and smart journalists 



Mc. 37.] COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 133 

who mistook a little book-knowledge for culture, were in the 
habit of disparaging Cobden as a common manufacturer, without 
an idea in his head beyond buying in the cheapest market and 
selling in the dearest. This was not the way in which he struck 
the most fastidious, critical, and refined man of letters in Europe, 
accustomed to mix with the most important personages of litera- 
ture and affairs then alive. Prosper Merimee saw a great deal 
of Cobden in 1860, when they both spent part of the winter at 
Cannes. " Cobden," he wrote to his intimate correspondent, " is 
a man of an extremely interesting mind ; quite the opposite of an 
Englishman in this respect, that you never hear him talk com- 
monplaces, and that he has few prejudices." It was just because 
he was not a man of prejudice, that he had none against his own 
countrymen. We saw how, when he was travelling in America, 
he found his British blood up, as he said, and he dealt faithfully 
with the disparagers of the mother country. 1 Returning from 
France on one occasion, Cobden says in his journal, that they all 
remarked on the handsome women who were seen on the English 
platforms, and all agreed that they were handsomer than those 
whom they had left on the other side. "The race of men and 
women in the British Islands," Cobden goes on to himself, "is 
the finest in the world in a physical sense; and although they 
have many moral defects and some repulsive qualities, yet on the 
whole I think the English are the most outspoken, truthful men 
in the world, and this virtue lies at the bottom of their political 
and commercial greatness." 

This conviction inspired him with a peculiar respect for his 
great popular audiences, and they instinctively felt the presence 
of it, making a claim to their good-will and their attention. 
Cobden differed from his countrymen as to what it is that will 
make England great, but he was as anxious that England should 
be great, and as proud of English virtues and energies, as the 
noisiest patriot in a London music-hall. 

Cobden always said that it was an advantage to him as an 
agitator that he was a member of the Church of England. He 
used to tell of men who came up to him and declared that their 
confidence in him dated from the moment when they learnt that 
he was a churchman. It was, perhaps, a greater advantage to him 
than he knew. However little we may admire a State establish- 
ment of religion, it is certain that, where such an establishment 
happens to exist, those who have been brought up in it, and have 
tranquilly conformed to its usages, escape one source of a certain 
mental asperity and the spirit of division. This is no credit to 
them or to the institution ; any more than the asperity is a dis- 

l Above, pp. 22, 23. 



134 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

credit to those who do not conform to the institution. Nay, one 
strong reason why some disapprove of systems of ecclesiastical 
privilege, is exactly that in modern societies it necessarily engen- 
ders this spirit of division. But in itself the spirit of division is 
no element of strength, but rather of weakness, for one whose 
task is to touch doubtful or unwilling hearers. 

Temperament; however, had a larger share than institutions in 
Cobden's faculty of moral sympathy. There is scanty evidence 
of anything like an intense spirituality in his nature ; he was 
neither oppressed nor elevated by the mysteries, the aspirations, 
the remorse, the hope, that constitute religion. So far as we can 
have means of knowing, he was not of those who live much in 
the Unseen. But for moral goodness, in whatever association he 
came upon it, he had a reverence that came from his heart of 
hearts. While leaning strongly towards those scientific theories 
of motive and conduct, of which, as has been already said, George 
Combe was in those clays the most active propagandist, he felt no 
contempt, provided only their practical endeavor was towards 
good, for those who clung narrowly to older explanations of the 
heart of man. In a letter written to Combe himself, when the 
struggle against the Corn Laws was over, Cobden allows himself 
to talk freely on his own attitude in these high matters : — 

".-.'.. With reference," he says, "to your remarks as to the 
evangelical dissenters and religionists generally, and their views 
of your philosophy of morals — I will confess to you that I am 
not inclined to quarrel with that class of my countrymen. I see 
the full force of what you urge, but am inclined to hope more 
from them in time than any other party in the State. Gradually 
and imperceptibly to themselves they are catching the spirit of 
the age, so far as to recognize the moral laws as a part of our 
natural organization. They do not accept your views to the 
superseding of their own, but, like geology, your science is forcing 
its way alongside of preconceived ideas, and they will for a time 
go together without perceptibly clashing. 

" I do not quarrel with the religionists, for I find them gener- 
ally enforcing or at all events recognizing and professing to act 
upon (they do not, I admit, sufficiently preach it) the morality of 
the New Testament, and you can do no more. The only difference 
is that John Calvin and George Combe act upon different theo- 
ries, and rely upon different motives, and start from very differ- 
ent premises, but they recognize the selfsame ends secularly 

speaking, and I cannot quarrel with either I am by nature 

a religionist. I was much struck with your remark when you 
mapped my head eleven years ago, - - ' Why, if you had been born 
in the middle ages, you would have made a good monk, you have 
so much veneration ! ' That was a triumph for phrenology, for 



JEt.37-] COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 135 

you could have formed no such notion from anything you had 
seen or heard of me. I have a strong religious feeling, — a sym- 
pathy for men who act under that impulse ; I reverence it as the 
great leverage which has moved mankind to powerful action. 
I acknowledge that it has been perverted to infinite mischief. I 
confess it has been the means of degrading men to brutish pur- 
poses .... but it has also done glorious deeds for liberty and 
human exaltation, and it is destined to do still better things. It 
is fortunate for me that whilst possessing a strong logical faculty, 
which keeps me in the path of rationalism, I have the religious 
sympathy which enables me to co-operate with men of exclusively 
religious sentiment. I mean it is fortunate for my powers of 
usefulness in this my day and generation. To this circumstance 
I am greatly indebted for the success of the great Free Trade 
struggle, which has been more indebted to the organ of veneration 
for its success, than is generally known. 

" I am not without hopes that the same fortunate circumstance 
in organization may enable me to co-operate efficiently with the 
most active and best spirits of our day, in the work of moral and 
intellectual education. I could insist upon the necessity of 
secular teaching and training without wounding the religious 
prejudices of any man, excepting the grovelling bigots whether of 
the High Church party or the opposite extreme, against whom I 
could make war in the same spirit which has in the case of the 
Corn monopolists enabled me to deprive them of the pretence 
for personal resentment, even in the hour of their defeat and 
humiliation. 

" I have said that I have a strong feeling of sympathy for the 
religious sentiment. But I sympathize with all moral men who 
are not passive moralists : with them it is difficult to sympathize, 
but I venerate and trust them. Especially do I sympathize with 
those who labor and make sacrifices for the diffusion of sound 
moral principles. I will own, however, that it is unpleasant to 
my feelings to associate with those who, whilst they indulge in 
coarse sceptical allusions to our faith, do not in their private life 
manifest that they impose a better restraint upon themselves than 
is to be found in the New Testament. My active public life has 
sometimes thrown me into such company, and with these esprits 
forts, as the French call them, I have no sympathy. My maxim 
is in such predicaments to avoid theological discussions (here 
again is my veneration overriding causality), and to avow that 
I am resolved to follow Bonaparte's advice — to adhere to the 
religion of my mother, who was an energetically pious woman." 1 

No whisper was ever seriously raised against Cobden's trans- 



1 To George Combe, Aug. 1, 1846. 



136 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

parent honesty. What is worth remarking is, that his sincerity- 
was not of that cheap and reckless kind, by virtue of which men 
sometimes in one wild outburst of plain speech cut themselves 
off from chances of public usefulness for the remainder of their 
lives. He laid down certain social ends, which he thought 
desirable, and which he believed that he could promote. And 
when one of these was fixed in his mind, and set definitely before 
him, he became the most circumspect of creatures. Being a man 
of action, and not a speculative teacher, he took care not to 
devote his energies to causes in which he did not see a good 
chance of making some effective mark, either on legislation or on 
important sections of public opinion. " I am cautious to a fault," 
he once wrote, " and nothing will be done by me that has not the 
wisdom of the serpent, as much as the harmlessness of the dove 
in it." 1 

This was only another way of saying that strong enthusiasm 
in him was no hindrance to strong sense. Instead of increasing 
the elements of friction — the besetting weakness of reformers 
and dissidents of- all kinds — he took infinite trouble to reduce 
these elements to the lowest possible point. Hence he was care- 
ful not to take up too many subjects at once, because the antago- 
nism generated by each would have been made worse by the 
antagonism belonging to every other, and he would have called up 
a whole host of enemies together, instead of leaving himself free 
to deal with one at a time. A correspondent once wrote to him 
on this point. 

" You have opened a very important question," Cobden replied, 
" in respect to the duty of a public man, to advocate all the 
changes to which he may be favorable. I have often reflected 
upon this. Bacon says, if you have a handful of truths, open but 
one finger at a time. He is not the safest moral guide, I admit, 
but I am not sure that he is not to some extent right in this 
view. If we are to declare our convictions upon all subjects, 
and if abstract reason is to be our guide, without reference to 
time and circumstance, why should not I, for instance, avow my- 
self a republican ? A republic is undeniably the most rational 
form of government for free men. But I doubt whether I should 
enhance my power of usefulness by advocating that form of gov- 
ernment for England. But whilst I do not think I should act 
wisely by putting forth all I think, in a practical way I so far 
admit the principle that I would not advocate the opposite of 
what I am convinced is the truth abstractedly. And this brings 
me to my old ground of trying to do one thing at a time. By 
this I mean merely that I have an aptitude for certain questions. 

l To S. Lucas, Jan. 27, 1862. 



2Et. 37.] COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 137 

Other people have a talent for others, and I think a division of 
labor is necessary for success in political, as in industrial life." 1 

This wise economy brought its reward. Cobden did not carry 
the world with him in his own lifetime, but what he did by his 
method was to bring certain principles of human progress into 
line with the actual politics of the day. He did not create a ma- 
jority, but he achieved the first difficult step of creating a strong 
minority, and this not merely of sympathizers in the closet, but 
of active followers in the nation. 

It was what he called his wisdom of the serpent that gave 
Cobden his power in the other arts of a successful agitator, which 
are less conspicuous, but hardly less indispensable, than command- 
ing or persuasive oratory. He applied the same qualities in the 
actual business of the League which he brought to bear in his 
speeches. He was indefatigable in his industry, fertile in inge- 
nious devices for bringing the objects of the League before the 
country, constantly on the alert for surprising a hostile post, 
never losing a chance of turning a foe or a neutral into a friend, 
and never allowing his interest about the end for which he was 
working to confuse his vigilant concentration upon the means. 
The danger of great confederacies like the League is that they 
become mechanical. Machinery must of necessity play a large 
part. Circulars, conferences, subscriptions, advertisements, depu- 
tations, eternal movings and secondings — all these things are 
apt to bury the vital part of a movement under a dreary and de- 
pressing fussiness, that makes one sometimes wonder whether 
the best means of saving an institution might not be to establish 
a society for overthrowing it. A society of this kind seems often 
a short way for choking the most earnest spirits with dusty catch- 
words, that are incessantly being ground out by the treadmill of 
agitation. It was Cobden's fresh and sanguine temper that bore 
him triumphantly through this peril, though none of the energetic 
men with whom he worked was more busily intent on every de- 
tail of their organization. He had none of that fastidiousness 
which is repelled by the vulgarities of a proselytizing machine. 
He was like a general with a true genius for war. The strategy 
was a delight to him ; in tactics he was one of the most adroit of 
men ; he looked to everything ; he showed the boldness, the vigi- 
lance, the tenacity, the resource, of a great commander. Above 
all, he had the commander's gift of encouraging and stimulating 
others. He had enthusiasm, patience, and good humor, which is 
the most valuable of all qualities in a campaign. There was as 
little bitterness in his nature as in any human being that ever 
lived : so little that he was able to say, at the end of seven years 

1 To the Rev. Thomas Silencer, April 23, 1849. 



138 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1841. 

of as energetic an agitation as could be carried on, short of physi- 
cal force, that he believed he had not made a single enemy, nor 
wounded a single man's personal feelings. 

Critics usually singled out Cobclen's logical faculty as his 
strongest trait, and it was so ; but he was naturally inclined to 
think of the conclusions of his logic in poetized forms. He always 
delighted, in spite of the wretched simile with which they close, 
in the lines in which Cowper anticipated the high economic doc- 
trine : — 

Again — the band of commerce was design'd, 
To associate all the branches of mankiud, 
And if a boundless plenty be the robe, 
Trade is the golden Girdle of the globe. 
Wise to promote whatever end he means, 
God opens fruitful Nature's various scenes, 
Each climate needs what other climes produce, 
And offers something to the general use ; 
No land but listens to the common call, 
And in return receives supply from all. 
This genial intercourse and mutual aid 
Cheers what were else an universal shade, 
Calls Nature from her ivy-mantled den, 
And softens human rock-work into men. 

From Cowper, too, he was never weary of quoting the lines 
about liberty : — 

'T is liberty alone that gives the flower 

Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume, 

And we are weeds without it. All constraint 

Except what wisdom lays on evil men 

Is evil. 

It was this association of solid doctrine with genial enthusiasm 
and high ideals, that distinguished Cobden from too many preachers 
of what our humorist has called the gospel according to McCrowdy. 
It was this kindly imaginativeness in him which caught men's 
hearts. His ideals were constantly sneered at as low, material, 
common, unworthy, especially by the class whose lives are one 
long course of indolence, dilettanteism, and sensuality. George 
Combe tells how one evening in 1852 he was in the drawing-room 
of some great lady, who, amid the applause of her friends, de- 
nounced Cobden's policy as never rising beyond a mere " bag- 
man's millennium." 2 This was the clever way, among the selfish 
and insolent, of saying that the ideal which Cobden cherished was 
comfort for the mass, not luxury for the few. He knew much 
better than they, that material comfort is, as little as luxury, the 
highest satisfaction of men's highest capacities ; but he could well 
afford to scorn the demand for fine ideals of life on the lips of a 

1 Life of George Combe, ii. 309. 



jEt. 37.] COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR. 139 

class who were starving the workers of the country in order to 
save their own rents. 

There is one more point on which it is worth while to say a 
word in connection with Cobden's character as an agitator. The 
great danger of the career is that it may in time lessen a man's 
moral self-possession. Effect becomes the decisive consideration 
instead of truth ; a good meeting grows into a final object in life ; 
the end of existence is a paradise of loud and prolonged cheering ; 
and character is gradually destroyed by the parasites of self-con- 
sciousness and vanity. On one occasion, in 1845, as we shall see, 
Cobden was betrayed, excusably enough, into some strong lan- 
guage about Sir Eobert Peel. Miss Martineau, George Combe, 
and others, rebuked him rather sharply. He took the rebuke 
with perfect temper and humility, and in seeking to excuse him- 
self, he described his feelings about public life in words of which 
it is impossible to doubt the exact truth. " You must not judge 
me," he said, " by what I say at these tumultuous public meet- 
ings. I constantly regret the necessity of violating good taste and 
kind feeling in my public harangues. I say advisedly necessity, 
for I defy anybody to keep the ear of the public for seven years 
upon one question, without studying to amuse as well as instruct. 
People do' not attend public meetings to be taught, but to be ex- 
cited, flattered, and pleased. If they are simply lectured, they 
may sit out the lesson for once, but. they will not come again ; 
and as I have required them again and again, I have been obliged 
to amuse them, not by standing on my head or eating fire, but by 
kindred feats of jugglery, such as appeals to their self-esteem, 
their combativeness, or their humor. You know how easily in 
touching these feelings one degenerates into flattery, vindictive- 
ness, and grossness. I really sometimes wonder how I have es- 
caped so well as I have done. By nature I am not a mob orator. 
It is an effort for me to speak in public. The applause of a meet- 
ing has no charm for me. When I address an audience, it is 
from a sense of duty and utility, from precisely the motive which 
impels me to write an article in the League newspaper, and with 
as little thought of personal eclat. Do not, therefore, be alarmed 
with the idea that my head will be turned with applause. It 
would be a relief to me if I knew there was no necessity for my 
ever appearing again at a public meeting." * 

1 To George Combe, Dec. 29, 1845. 



140 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842- 

CHAPTEE X. 

THE NEW CORN LAW. 

In the interval between the prorogation and the great session 
of 1842 it was commonly understood that the Government would 
certainly do something with the Corn Law. Expectation was not 
sanguine among' the men in the north. Some of the more im- 
patient were so irritated by the delay, that they even wished to 
agitate for the overthrow of a government which had just been 
appointed, and which commanded an overwhelming majority. 
Cobden was wiser. To one of the shrewdest of his allies he wrote 
some useful truth : — 

" I do not like your idea," he said, " of getting the deputies to 
pass a vote for dismissing the Ministry. That would be taken as 
a partisan movement — which it really would be — and we should 
lose moral influence by it. Let us not forget that we were very 
tolerant of the Whig Ministers, even after Melbourne had laughed 
in our faces and called us madmen. The present Government 
will do something. It is the House of Commons, and not the 
Ministers, that we ought to attack. I do not see how with de- 
cency we can worry the Queen to change her Ministers, whilst 
the people's representatives have made her take to Peel against 
her consent. And amongst the representatives who have done 
this are those from Liverpool, Warrington, Wigan, Leeds, Black- 
burn, Lancaster, etcetera. Eeally, when we think of these places, 
it ought to make us modest. 

" I have been thinking a good deal of the plan of district meet- 
ings alluded to in a former letter to Mr. Eawson, and am more 
and more favorable to it. I am convinced that spontaneous 
efforts through the country would tell more powerfully upon the 
aristocracy, than another great meeting in Manchester. The 
question has been too much confined to Manchester. The cotton 
lords are not more popular than the landlords." 1 

Although he deprecated the agitation of impatience, Cobden 
was as eager and as active as anybody else in the agitation of 
persuasion. He spoke at a great conference, held at Derby, of 
the merchants of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire, 
where he made a vigorous onslaught upon what he called the 
Land-tax fraud. From the Trent he found his way to the Clyde, 
while Mr. Bright went to Dublin, as well as to every place nearer 
home where he could get men to listen to him. In all the centres 

\To G. Wilson. Leamington, Oct. 12, 1841. 



vEt.38.] THE NEW CORN LAW. 141 

of industry people were urged to form associations, to get up peti- 
tions, and to hold district meetings of deputies. They were to 
collect information as to the state of trade, the rate of wages, 
the extent of pauperism, and other facts bearing- upon the food 
monopoly, as all these things affected their local industry ; the 
woollen trade at Leeds, the iron trade at Wolverhampton, the 
earthenware trade in the Potteries, the flax trade at Dundee, 
the cotton trade at Manchester and Glasgow. 

The lecturers continued their work. One of them went among 
the farmers and laborers on Sir James Graham's estate, where he 
did not forget the landlord's idyllic catalogue of the blessings of 
the rural poor. " What ! " cried the lecturer, " six shillings a 
week for wages, and the morning's sun, and the singing of birds, 
and sportive lambs, and winding streams, and the mountain breeze, 
and a little wholesome labor — six shillings a week, and all this ! 
And nothing to do with your six shillings a week, but merely to 
pay your rent, buy your food, clothe yourselves and your families, 
and lay by something for old age ! Happy people ! " In many 
rural districts the only arguments which the lecturers were called 
upon to resist were stones and brickbats ; and even in some of 
the towns they still encountered rough and unfair treatment from 
members of the respectable classes, and their hired ruffians. The 
Chartists were for the time less violently hostile. 

•Among other devices this autumn was that of a great bazaar, 
which should both add to the funds of the League, and bring the 
friends of its objects into closer personal contact. The bazaar 
was held in the beginning of the following February, in the Eoyal 
Theatre at Manchester. It was a great success, and produced 
nearly ten thousand pounds. The following may serve to show 
Cobden's eye for the small things of agitation, and the uncon- 
sidered trifles that affect public opinion : — 

"I have just got your letter, and am delighted that you are 
satisfied with the bazaar prospects. Eeally I wonder how you 
and your four coadjutors endure the immense exertions called for 
in this undertaking. You must not look upon the mere money 
return as the sole test of success. It will give us a position in 
the public eye worth all the outlay. I remember twelve months 
ago feeling apprehensive that the monopolist papers would have 
deterred the ladies from appearing as sellers at the stalls by their 
blackguardism. Certainly three years ago that would have been 
the tone of the Herald, Post, and Bull. Now what a marked 
change is seen in those papers ; not a joke or attempt at ribald 
wit. All is fair and even laudatory. In this fact alone I see the 
evidence of a great moral triumph of the League. Could you not 
get a succession of notices in the papers similar to the Globe last 
evening ? Might not R. employ his pen in that way ? Tell him 



142 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

not to be too rhapsodical or eulogistic in his descriptions, but to 
give from day to day a few facts and scraps of information which 
would induce the papers to insert- the articles as news. There 
should be a description of the arrivals of the great traius filled 
with country Leaguers. In the next League let as long a list as 
possible of the people of rank who have attended be given — 
this is very important." 1 

Their newspaper deserves a word. Its energy was as striking 
as the energy of their speakers. Its leading articles, many of 
them written by Cobden and Bright themselves, were broad and 
weighty statements of the newest aspect of their case. Any 
unlucky phrase that fell from a monopolist was pounced upon 
and made the text of a vivacious paragraph. No incautious 
admission from the other side was ever allowed to escape, until 
all the most damaging conclusions that could be drawn from it 
had been worked out to the very uttermost. All the news of the 
day was scanned with a vigilant eye, and no item that could be 
turned into an argument or an illustration was left unimproved. 
This ingenuity and verve saved the paper from the monotony of 
most journals of a single purpose. Its pages were lighted up by 
reports of the speeches of Cobden, Bright, and Fox. The pictures 
with which it abounds of the condition of the common people, 
are more graphic than the most brilliant compositions of mere 
literary history. It does not affect us as the organ of a sect ; 
though it preaches from one text, it is always human and social. 
There were Poor Men's Songs, Anti-Corn-Law Hymns, and Anti- 
Bread-Tax Collects. Nor did the editor forget Byron's famous 
lines from the Age of Bronze, a thousand times declaimed in this 
long war : — 

See these inglorious Cincinnati swarm, 

Farmers of war, dictators of the farm ; 

Their ploughshare was the sword in hireling hands, 

Their fields manured by gore of other lands ; 

Safe in their barns, these Sabine tillers sent 

Their brethren out to battle — why ? for rent ! 

Year after year they voted cent per cent, 

Blood, sweat, and tear- wrung millions — why ? for rent! 

They roar'd, they dined, they drank, they swore they meant 

To die for England — why then live ? for rent! 

The Peace has made one general malcontent 

Of these high-market patriots ; war was rent! 

Their love of country, millions all misspent, 

How reconcile ? by reconciling rent! 

And will they not repay the treasures lent ? 

No : down with everything, and up with rent! 

Their good, ill, health, wealth, joy, or discontent, 

Being, end, aim, religion — rent, rent, rent! 

1 To G. Wilson, November, 1841. 



^t.38.] THE NEW CORN LAW. 143 

A volunteer in Preston this winter began to issue on his own 
"account a quaint little sheet of four quarto pages, called The 
Struggle, and sold for a halfpenny. It had no connection with any 
association, and nobody was responsible for its contents but the 
man who wrote, printed, and sold it. In two years eleven hundred 
thousand copies had been circulated. The Struggle is the very 
model for a plain man who wishes to affect the opinion of the 
humbler class, without the wasteful and, for the most part, inef- 
fectual machinery of a great society. It contains in number after 
number the whole arguments of the matter in the pithiest form, 
and in language as direct if not as pure as Cobbett's. Sometimes 
the number consists simply of some more than usually graphic 
speech by Cobden or by Fox. There are racy dialogues, in which 
the landlord always gets the worst of it ; and terse allegories in 
which the Duke of Buckingham or the Duke of Richmond figures 
as inauspiciously as Bunyan's Mr. Badman. The Bible is ran- 
sacked for appropriate texts, from the simple clause in the Lord's 
Prayer about our daily bread, down to Solomon's saying : " He 
that withholdeth the corn, the people shall curse him ; but bless- 
ings shall be upon the head of him that selleth it." On the front 
page of each number was a woodcut, as rude as a schoolboy's 
drawing, but full of spirit and cleverness, whether satirizing the 
Government, or contrasting swollen landlords with famine-stricken 
operatives, or painting some homely idyll of the industrious poor, 
to point the greatest of political morals, that " domestic comfort 
is the object of all reforms." 

Cobden had, at the beginning of the movement, been very near 
to securing the services, in the way of pictorial illustration, of a 
man who afterwards became very famous. This was Thackeray, 
then only known to a small public as the author of the Hogg arty 
Diamond. " Some inventor of a new mode of engraving," Mr. 
Henry Cole wrote to Cobden, " told Mr. Thackeray that it was 
applicable to the designs for the Corn Laws. Three drawings of 
your Anglo- Polish Allegory have been made and have failed. 
So Thackeray has given up the invention, and wood engraving 

must be used. This will materially alter the expense I 

hope you will think as well of the accompanying sketch — very 
rough, of course — as all I have shown it to, do. It was the work 
of only a few minutes, and I think, with its corpses, gibbet, and 
flying carrion crow, is as suggestive as you can wish. We both 
thought that a common soldier would be better understood than 
any more allegorical figure. It is only in part an adaptation of 
your idea, but I think a successful one. Figures representing 
eagerness of exchange, a half-clothed Pole offering bread, and a 
weaver manufactures, would be idea enough for a design alone. 
Of course, there may be any changes you please in this present 



144 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

design. I think for the multitude it would be well to have the 
ideas very simple and intelligible to all. The artist is a genius, 
both with his pencil and his pen. His vocation is literary. He 
is full of humor and feeling. Hitherto he has not had occasion 
to think much on the subject of Corn Laws, and therefore wants 
the stuff to work upon. He would like to combine both writing 
and drawing when sufficiently primed, and then he would write 
and illustrate ballads, or tales, or anything. I think you would 
find him a most effective auxiliary, and perhaps the best way to 
fill him with matter for illustrations would be to invite him to see 
the weavers, their mills, shuttles, etcetera. If you like the sketch, 
perhaps you will return it to me, and I will put it in the way of 
being engraved. 

" He will set about Lord Ashley when we have heard your 
opinion of the present sketch. Thackeray is the writer of an 
article in the last number of the Westminster Review, on French 
caricatures, and many other things. For some time he managed 
the Constitutional newspaper. He is a college friend of Charles 
Buller. We think the idea of an ornamental emblematical heading 
of the Circular good. The lower class of readers do not like to 
have to cut the leaves of a paper. Another, but a smaller class, 
like a small-sized page, because it is more convenient for binding. 
Corn Law readers lie, I suppose, chiefly among the former. Will 
you send your circular to Thomas Carlyle, Cheyne Street, Chelsea ? 
He was quoted in last week's Circular, and is making studies into 
the condition of the working class." 1 

The approach of the time for the assembling of Parliament drew 
men's minds away from everything else, and expectation became 
centred with new intensity on the scheme which the Minister 
would devise for the restoration of national prosperity. The re- 
tirement of an important member of the Cabinet during the recess 
had greatly quickened public excitement among both Protectionists 
and Free Traders. Both felt that their question was at stake, and 
that the Prime Minister would not allow the duty on corn to stand 
as it was. Peel has told us, in the memoirs published after his 
death, exactly what happened during the autumn of 1841. In 
conformity with his general practice, he brought the subject under 
the consideration of his colleagues in written memoranda. These 
memoranda, he said, afforded the best opportunity for mature con- 
sideration of facts and arguments, and were most effectual against 
misconstruction and hasty, inconsiderate decision. 2 . In them he 
now pointed out with unanswerable force the evils of the ex- 
isting system. He dwelt more especially on the violent fluctu- 
ations in the corn duty, and the consequent derangements and 

1 H. Cole to E. Cobden, June 22, 1839. 2 Memoirs, ii. 29. 



&t. 38.] THE NEW CORN LAW. 145 

unsteadiness of the markets. He showed how little the duties on 
importation could do towards keeping up a permanent high price. 
All that law could effect was to provide that, so long as corn grown 
in this country should not exceed a certain price, there should be 
no serious danger from competition with corn grown in other coun- 
tries. What was that price ? The law of 1815 had assumed that 
wheat could not be profitably grown at a lower price than eighty 
shillings a quarter. Events had shown that this was absurd ; the 
averages of a number of years came to fifty-six shillings. It 
seemed wise, then, so to readjust the machinery of the sliding 
scale as to tend to secure that price. 

The Duke of Buckingham, whose name figures so often in the 
sarcasms and invectives of the League, at once resigned his seat in 
the Cabinet rather than be a party to any meddling with the Corn 
Law of 1828. Even those who remained seemed to have pressed 
for an understanding, as was afterwards openly done in Parliament, 
that whatever amount of protection was set up by the new law 
should be permanently adhered to. This guaranty, Peel was far 
too conscientious to consent in any form to give. The Cabinet at 
length, with many misgivings, assented to their chief's arguments, 
and for the time the party was saved. 

I may as well quote here a passage from one of Cobclen's familiar 
letters to his brother, which describes the episode to much the same 
effect as Peel's more dignified narrative : — 

" Whilst I was with McGregor, he showed me a copy of the 
scale of duties which he had prepared under Peel's directions, and 
which he proposed to the Cabinet, causing Buckingham's retire- 
ment, and nearly leading to a break-up altogether. The scale was 
purposely devised to be as nearly as possible equal to an 8s. fixed 
duty. It was 8s. at 56s., rising a shilling of duty with a shilling 
fall of prices till it reached 16s., which was the maximum duty, 
and falling a shilling in duty with the rise of a shilling in price. 
With the exception of Eipon, he could get no support in the 
Cabinet. Lyndhurst, like an old fox, refused to vote (as I am 
told), not knowing whether Peel or the monopolists might be 
conqueror, and being himself equally happy to serve God or 
Mammon. The Duke of Bucks got hold of Eichmond, who se- 
cured Wellington, who by the aid of Stanley and Graham frus- 
trated Peel's intentions. The latter told them that no other prime 
minister after him would ever take office to give the landlords even 
an 8s. maximum duty. I learn from several quarters that Stanley 
is one of Peel's stoutest opponents against any alterations of a 
beneficial character in the monopolies. Last autumn I remember 
writing to Langton (at Heywood's) a letter for Birley's eye, in 
which I told him that, if Peel's Cabinet were pressed for a liberal 
corn law by the Lancashire Conservatives, it would aid Peel in 

10 



146 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

forcing his colleagues to go along with him, and be the very thing 
he would like. McGregor now confirms my view." 1 

The League resolved that they at any rate would leave nothing 
undone to support or overawe the Prime Minister. On the eve 
of the session several hundreds of delegates, including Cobden, 
O'Connell, Mr. Bright, Mr. Villiers, and Mr. Milner Gibson, as- 
sembled at the Crown and Anchor. They learned that the Prime 
Minister had that morning refused to receive a deputation from 
them, on the ground of his numerous engagements. The Times 
had a contemptuous article, mocking at them for the presumption 
and impertinence of their conduct. These deputies from country 
associations and religious congregationalists; instead of settling 
their differences with one another, had yet on one single point, for- 
sooth, discovered a system so pure that in a single interview the 
greatest and most experienced of statesmen would be thrown on 
his haunches. Perhaps these gentlemen would be willing to offer 
their services as members of Her Majesty's Privy Council. And 
so forth, in that vein of cheap ridicule with which the ephemera of 
the leading article are wont to buzz about all new men and un- 
familiar causes. Eidicule notwithstanding, the deputies thronged 
down to the House of Commons with something so like- tumult, 
that the police turned them out and cleared the lobbies. As they 
crowded round the approaches to the House, the irritated men 
hailed with abusive names those whom they knew to be champions 
of the abhorred monopoly. It was noticed that they did not agree 
in their cries. While all shouted out, " No sliding scale" some 
called for a fixed duty, and others clamored for " Total and im- 
mediate repeal." 

The ministerial plan was soon known, and brought scanty com- 
fort to the men of the north, as their friends rushed down the 
corridors to tell them what it was to be. Sir Eobert Peel could 
not accept their explanation of the prevailing depression and dis- 
tress. That was due, he contended, to over-investment of borrowed 
capital in manufactures ; to the displacement of hand-loom weav- 
ing by steam power ; to monetary difficulties in the United States, 
and consequent diminution of demand for our manufactures ; to 
interruption of the China trade ; finally, to alarms of war in 
Europe, and the stagnation of commerce which always follows 
such alarms. To alter the Corn Law would touch none of these 
sources of the mischief, and would be no remedy. At the same 
time he thought that the Corn Law, as it stood, was capable of 
improvement. The working of the sliding scale of 1828 2 was in- 
jurious to the consumer, because it kept back corn until it was 
dearer ; to the revenue, by the forced reduction of duty ; to the 

1 To F. Cobden, June 22, 1842. 2 See above, pp. Ill, 112. 



^T. 38.] THE NEW CORN LAW. 147 

agriculturist, by withholding corn until it reached the highest 
price, which was then suddenly snatched from him, and his pro- 
tection defeated ; and to commerce, because it introduced par- 
alyzing uncertainty. How then ought the Corn Law to be 
improved ? Not by changing a variable into a fixed duty, be- 
cause a fixed duty could not bear the strain of a time of scarcity 
and distress, and could not be permanent. It must be by modi- 
fying the existing principle of a duty varying inversely with the 
price. Now what was the price which would encourage the home- 
growth of corn ? On the whole it was for the interest of the 
agriculturist that the price of wheat, allowing for its natural 
oscillations, should range between fifty-four and fifty-eight shil- 
lings. The legislature could not guarantee that or any other 
price, but the scale might best be constructed with a view to this 
range of prices. What he proposed, then, was a new scale, con- 
siderably decreasing the protection hitherto afforded to the home- 
grower. 1 

Peel concluded a long exposition with a statement of those 
general ideas about an economic and national system, on which 
his proposals rested. They were these. It is of the highest im- 
portance to the welfare of all classes in this country, that care 
should be taken that the main sources of your supply of corn 
should be derived from domestic agriculture. The additional 
price which you may pay in effecting that object, cannot be vin- 
dicated as a bonus or premium to agriculture, but only on the 
ground of its being advantageous to the country at large. The 
agriculturist has special burdens, and you are entitled to place 
such a price on foreign corn as is equivalent to these special bur- 
dens. Any additional protection to them can only be vindicated 
on the ground that it is for the interest of the country generally. 
And it is for the interest of all classes that we should be paying 
occasionally a small additional sum upon our own domestic 
produce, in order that we may thereby establish a security and 
insurance against the calamities that would ensue if we became 
altogether, or in a great part, dependent upon foreign countries 
for our supply. 2 

1 As this became the Corn Law denounced by Cobden during the agitation from 
1842 to 1846, it is well to describe the difference between the new scale and that of 
the Act of 1828 in Peel's own words : — " When corn is at 59s. and under 60s., the 
duty at present is 27s. 8d. When corn is between those prices, the duty I propose 
is 13s. When the price of corn is at 50s. the existing duty is 36s. 8d, increasing as 
the price falls ; instead of which I propose, when corn is at 50s. , that the duty shall 
only be 20s. and that that duty shall in no case be exceeded. (Hear, hear. ) At 
56s. the existing duty is 30s. 8d.; the duty I propose at that price is 16s. At 60s. 
the existing duty is 26s. 8d.; the duty I propose at that price is 12s. At 63s. the 
existing duty is 23s. 8d.; the duty 1 propose is 9s. At 64s. the existing duty is 22s. 
8d.; the duty I propose is 8s. At 70s. the existing duty is 10s. 8d.; the duty I 
propose is 5s." 

2 February 9, 1842. 



148 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

When the Minister sat down, Lord John Eussell said a few 
formal words, and Peel added some explanation which took a mo- 
ment or two. Cobden, according to a hostile reporter, had been 
"looking very lachrymose all the evening," and he now rose — it 
is interesting to notice contemporary estimates of important men 
whose importance has not yet been stamped — " for the purpose 
of inflicting one of his stereotyped harangues on the House." He 
did not do this, but he wound up the proceedings by a short and 
vehement declaration that he could not allow a moment to pass 
in denouncing the proposed measure as a bitter- insult to a suffer- 
ing nation. 

Cobden's reception of the Ministerial plan was loudly re-echoed 
in the north of England. The news of the retention of the sliding 
scale was received with angry disgust throughout the manufac- 
turing districts. Thousands of petitions, with hundreds of thou- 
sands of signatures, were sent up to Cobden and other members 
to lay before Parliament. The ordinary places of public meeting 
were not large enough to hold the thousands of exasperated 
men, who had just found from the newspapers that the Gov- 
ernment would not give way. In cold and rain they assembled 
in the open spaces of their towns to listen to speeches, and to 
pass resolutions, denouncing Sir Eobert Peel's measure as an 
insult and a mockery to a distressed population. The Prime 
Minister was formally accused of offering indignity and contempt 
to the working classes ; of sacrificing the rights of the poor to 
the selfish interests of an unfeeling and avaricious aristocracy ; 
of creating wealth, luxury, and splendor for a class, out of the ab- 
ject misery of the millions. His effigy was carried on gibbets in 
contumely through the streets of towns like Stockport and Eoch- 
dale, to the sound of drums and fifes, and then, amid the execra- 
tion of multitudes, hurled into the flames. In some places the 
fierce ceremony was preceded by a mock trial, in which the crimi- 
nal was swiftly condemned, sentenced, and thrown into the bon- 
fire as a traitor to his country, while the crowd shouted their 
prayer that so might all oppressors of the people perish. 

Considering Cobden's untiring promptitude in seizing every oc- 
casion of enforcing his cause upon the House, it is odd that he 
should not have spoken in the debate in which the new plan was 
most directly under discussion. The debate ended in a majority 
for the Minister of one hundred and twenty-three. Mr. Villiers, 
however, with the judicious neglect of tact that is always so pro- 
voking to neutrals, and without which no unpopular cause ever 
prospers, immediately after the House had decided that corn 
should be subject to a variable and not a fixed duty, proceeded 
to invite the same House to decide that it should be subject 
to no duty at all (Feb. 18). The first debate had lasted for four 



Mi. 38.] THE NEW CORN LAW. 149 

nights, and the second upon the same topics now lasted for five 
more. On the last of them (Feb. 24) Cobden made his speech. 1 
He dealt with the main propositions which Peel had laid down 
as the defence of the new Bill. The Minister had confessed, and 
he now repeated it in reply to a direct challenge, that it was im- 
possible to fix the price of food by legislative enactment. Then 
for what were they legislating ? At least to keep up the price of 
food. Why not try in the same way to keep up the price of cot- 
tons, woollens, and silks ? The fact that they did not try this, was 
the simple and open avowal that they were met there to legislate 
for a class, against the people. The price of cotton had fallen 
thirty per cent, in ten years, and the price of ironmongery had 
fallen as much. Yet the ironmonger was forced to exchange his 
goods with the agriculturist for the produce of the land, at the 
present high price of corn. Was this fair and reasonable ? Could 
it be called legislation at all ? Assuredly it was not honest legis- 
lation. Why should there not be a sliding scale for wages ? If they 
admitted that wages could not be artificially sustained at a certain 
price, why should a law be passed to keep up the price of wheat ? 
But the land, they said, was subject to heavy burdens. For every 
one special burden, he could show ten special exemptions. Even 
if the exclusive burdens on land were proved, the proper remedy 
was to remove them, and not to tax the food of the people. 

An excellent point was made by the exposure of the fallacy, 
that low wages are the same thing as cheap labor. And this 
proved to be of the highest importance, as an element in Sir 
Eobert Peel's conversion. He admitted afterwards that he had 
accepted this fallacy without proper examination, and that its 
overthrow was one of the things which most powerfully affected 
his opinions on a protective system. Apart from his general 
demonstration of the truth in this respect, Cobden now showed 
that the highly paid labor of England was proved to be the cheap- 
est labor in the world. The manufacturers might have credit for 
taking a more enlightened view of their own interest than to sup- 
pose that the impoverishment of the multitude — the great con- 
sumers of all that they produce — could ever tend to promote the 
prosperity of the manufacturers. " I will tell the House, that by 
deteriorating the population, of which they ought to be so proud, 
they will run the risk of spoiling, not merely the animal, but the 
intellectual creature. It is not a potato-fed race that will ever lead 
the way in arts, arms, or commerce." 

In the course of his speech, which was not in the strong vein 
that greater experience soon made easy to him, Cobden had talked 
of the ignorance on the question which prevailed among the Tory 

1 Cobden' s Speeches, Mr. Rogers's edition. Vol. i. 15-28. [Edition of 1870.] 



150 . LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

members. " Yes," he exclaimed, when his adversaries cried out 
against this vigorous thrust, " I have never seen their ignorance 
equalled among any equal number of workingmen in the north 
of England." And he reminded them that when the Corn Law of 
1815 was passed, and when eminent men of both parties honestly 
thought that wages followed the price of corn, the great multitude 
of the nation, without the aid of learning, " with that intuitive 
sagacity which had given rise to the adage, ' The voice of the 
people is the voice of God,' " foresaw what the effect of the meas- 
ure would be upon wages, and from 1815 to 1819 there never 
was a great public meeting at Manchester at which there was not 
some banner inscribed with the words, No Corn Laws. 

For these taunts, the House took a speedy revenge. When 
Cobden sat down, the benches were crowded, and the member for 
Knaresborough got up. In a speech ten days before, Mr. Ferrand 
had said that the member for Stockport had during the last twelve 
years accumulated half a million of money ; and that when night 
after night, during the last session, he was asserting that the Corn 
Laws had ruined the trade in Lancashire, he was actually at that 
very time running his works both night and day. This was only 
one item in a gross and violent attack on the whole class of 
northern manufacturers. He now returned to the charge with 
greater excitement than before. He quoted a great number of 
instances, where the system of truck was forced upon the helpless 
workmen. The artisans, he said, were compelled to live in cot- 
tages belonging to the employer, and to pay rent higher by one 
tenth than their proper value. They were poisoned by the vile 
rags and devil's dust with which they had to work, and which 
the masters use for the fraudulent adulteration of their cloths. 
As for scarcity of flour, it arose from the consumption of that 
article by the manufacturers, in a paste with which they dis- 
honestly daubed the face of their calicoes. 

The country gentlemen shouted with exultation. They were 
ill qualified to judge the worth of these extravagant denuncia- 
tions. The towns of Lancashire were more unfamiliar to them 
in those days than Denver or Omaha are in our own, and any 
atrocity was credible of those who lived and worked within them. 
The whole conception of modern manufacturing industry was as 
horrible as it was strange in their eyes. We have already seen 
Sir James Graham's description of them as more cruel than the 
icy wastes of Siberia, or the burning shores of Mauritius. The 
chief newspaper of the country party boldly declared that England 
would be as great and powerful, and all useful Englishmen would 
be as rich as they are, though all the manufacturing houses in Great 
Britain should be engulfed in ruin. The same paper pleased the 
taste of its subscribers by saying that there was not a single mill- 



JSr.88.] THE NEW CORN LAW. 151 

owner who would not compound for the destruction of all the 
manufacturing industry of England, on condition that during that 
period he should have full work and high profits for his mill, 
capital, and credit. 1 It is no exaggeration to say that by the ma- 
jority of the Parliament of 1841 the cotton-spinners of the north 
were regarded with the same abhorrence as was common twenty 
years ago towards such representatives of Trade Unionism as were 
discovered in Sheffield. 

Cobden was not cowed by the furious scene. Amid cries of 
" explain," he rose to tell the House very quietly, that it was not 
his mission to indulge in gross personalities. He assured the 
members who desired a partisan warfare of this kind, that nothing 
should drive him into a personal altercation ; and he considered 
the dignity of the House in some danger when he found language 
such as they had been listening to for the last half-hour received 
with so much complacency by the Ministers, and with such cheers 
by the party at their back. 

There was violent irritation among his friends at the attack on 
him and their class, caused less by the exaggeration of the attack 
itself, than by the exultant spirit in which it was received by the 
House. Neighbors in Lancashire came forward to testify that 
both at Sabden and at Cross Hall he had set up a school, a library, 
and a news-room for the benefit of old and young in his employ ; 
that the workmen of his district were eager for a place in his 
works ; and that to no one did Mr. Ferrand's remarks apply with 
less truth than to Cobden and his partners for the last ten years. 
Cobden cared little for what had been said about him, but he 
seems to have felt some dissatisfaction with the momentary hesi- 
tation of the League as to the larger question of the new law. 
He wrote to his brother : — 

" You never witnessed such a scene as that in the House of 
Commons when Ferrand was speaking the other night. The 
Tories were literally frantic with delight. Every sentence he 
uttered was caught up and cheered by a large majority, far more 
vehemently than anything that ever fell from Peel or Macaulay. 
It was not ironical cheering, but downright hearty approbation. 
I have not the least doubt that the M. P. for Knaresborough spoke 
the honest convictions of a majority of the members present. The 
exhibition was premeditated and got up for the occasion. I was 
told several days before at the club that Ferrand was to follow 
me in the debate. He was planted (to use a vulgar phrase) upon 
me by his party. I finished speaking at about a quarter- past 
eleven, and it was remarked by two or three on our side that just 
before I sat down Sir George Clerk of the Treasury went and whis- 

1 Quoted in Prentice's History of the League, i. 284. 



152 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

pered to Green, the chairman of committee, and directed his eye 
towards Ferrand, so that, notwithstanding that others tried to fol- 
low me, he called straight for the Knaresborough hero. Away he 
went with the attitudes of a prize-fighter, and the voice of a bull. 
.... Just at the time when I was speaking the members swarmed 
into the House from the dinner-tables, and they were in a right 

state for supporting Master Ferrand. Colonel S plied the 

fellow with oranges to suck, in an affectionate way that resembled 
a monkey fondling a bear. "What do your Tories think of their 
party in the House ? I find that nothing seems to be considered 
so decided a stigma, as to brand a man as a mill -owner. Thus 
you see that the charge against me of working a mill at night 
would not be given up, even although it was proved to be a print- 
works. I hope Ferrand by getting rope enough will settle him- 
self soon. Tory praise will soon carry him off his legs. 

" From all that I hear, your people in Lancashire seem to be 
swayed to and fro like the grass by a summer's wind, without 
any particular progress. I suppose it will settle down into more 
quiet work in the way of tracts and lectures. I should like to 
have carried it by a coup, but that is not possible. It seems 
generally admitted up here by all parties that it is now only a 
question of time. Lord Lowther said to a friend of Villiers the 
other day, after the division of ninety, that he did not think it 
would take more than three years to abolish the Corn Laws ; and 
Rawson and I were taking tea at Bellamy's, when a party of 
Tory members at another table agreed that it would come to a 
5s. fixed duty in about three years. The Tories have not liked 
the debate. Peel feels that he has not come out of it well. He 
looks dissatisfied with himself, and I am told he is not in good 
health. What will he be by the end of the session ? " l 

The truth seems to be that the Leaguers, in spite of their mod- 
erate expectations, were taken aback by the heavy blow which 
the Minister had just dealt them. They had hoped against hope, 
and had been too full of faith in their own arguments to doubt 
their effect upon others. The ways of Parliaments were as 
strange to them as the ways of mill-owners were to the House 
of Commons. For a single moment they were staggered ; Cobden 
was for an instant or two fired by a violent impulse, which soon, 
however, yielded to his usual good sense. "I feel some little 
difficulty," he wrote to Mr. George Wilson, "in offering my 
advice as to the course which the League should henceforth 
pursue. That course depends very much upon the spirit of the 
people who are acting with us. If they were all of my temper 
in the matter, we would soon bring it to an issue. I presume, 

i To F. Cobden, Feb. 28, 1842. 



Jh\38.] THE NEW CORN LAW. ' 153 

however, that your friends are not up to the mark for a general 
fiscal revolt, and I know of no other plan of peaceful resistance. 
The question is, then, as to the plan of agitation for the 
future. The idea of ever petitioning the present House of Com- 
mons again upon the Corn Laws should be publicly renounced. 
It involves great trouble and expense, and will do no good. If 
we had another election, the case would be different, but there 
is no use in petitioning the present House. I think our lecturers 
should be thown upon the boroughs, particularly in the rural 
districts where we have been opposed. A well prepared account 
should be taken of the state of all the boroughs in the kingdom 
in reference to our question. They should be classified, and put 
into lists of safe, tolerably safe, doubtful, desperate, hopeless. Our 
whole strength should be then thrown upon the doubtfuls. 
Electoral Committees should be formed in each borough to look 
after the registration, and we ought, if needful, to incur some 
expenditure in this department. Much will depend on our get- 
ting a good working Committee in every borough to look after 
the register, and to agitate our question. 

" Now as respects any great demonstration of numbers against 
the passing of the present law. It has been suggested that we 
ought to hold a meeting on Kersall Moor. But I presume that 
would be a joint Suffrage and Corn Law meeting, which would 
not aid our cause at present. The middle class must be still 
further pinched and disappointed before they will go to that. 
I quite agree with you that we must keep the League as a body 
wholly distinct from the suffrage movement. But at the same 
time I think the more that individuals connected prominently 
with the League join the suffrage party the better. I shall take 
the first opportunity in the House of avowing myself for the 
suffrage to every man. 

" After all, I hardly entertain a hope that we shall effect our 
object by old and regular methods ; accidents may aid us, but 
I do not see my way in the ordinary course of things to beating 
down the power of the aristocracy." 1 

Mr. Bright made various suggestions, and Cobden replied to 
them with provisional assent : — 

" I am afraid you must not calculate on my attending at your 
tea-party. During the recess I shall have some private matters 
to attend to, and I shall endeavor to avoid public meetings as 
far as possible. I have been thinking of our future plans, and 
am more and more convinced of the necessity of keeping our- 
selves free from all other questions. I am much more of opinion, 
upon reflection, of the necessity of some such bold demonstration 

1 To G. Wilson, Feb. 27, 1842. 



154 LIFE OF COBDEN. 

in the way of organization and the securing a large fund, as 
you were alluding to. Something must be done to secure the 
ground, and thus prevent its being occupied by any other party. 
Nothing would so much attain that object as to get a large fund 
secured. I like the idea of an Anti-Corn-Law rent. Unless 
some such demonstration of renewed life and resolution be made 
immediately after the passing of the Corn Law, it will be suspected 
that we are giving up the cause." 1 

Cobden seems to have cooled down to a sober view of the 
situation when he wrote to his brother, a fortnight after the 
affair of Mr. Ferrand : — 

" There is a curious symptom breaking out in the Tory ranks. 
Several of the young aristocrats are evidently more liberal than 
their leaders, and they have talked rationally about an ultimate 
Free Trade. I hear a good deal of this talk in the tea and din- 
ing-rooms. In fact the Tory aristocracy are liberals hi feeling, 
compared with your genuine political bigot, a cotton-spinning 
Tory. I see no other course for us but a renewed agitation of 
the agricultural districts, where I expect there will be a good 
deal of discontent erelong. I mean in the small rural towns. 
Bad trade in the manufacturing towns will, I suspect, very soon 
convert the Tories, or break them, the next best thing." 2 

No new line of action was hit upon until the end of the ses- 
sion. In the mean time, so far as the agitation out of doors went, 
Cobden's mind was incessantly turning over plans for strength- 
ening the connections of the League. To Mr. Ashworth he 
wrote : — 

" It has struck me that it would be well to try to engraft our 
Free Trade agitation upon the Peace movement. They are one 
and the same cause. It has often been to me a matter of the 
greatest surprise, that the Friends have not taken up the ques- 
tion of Free Trade as the means — and I believe the only human 
means — of effecting universal and permanent peace. The efforts 
of the Peace Societies, however laudable, can never be success- 
ful so long as the nations maintain their present system of isola- 
tion. The Colonial system, with all its dazzling appeals to the 
passions of the people, can never be got rid of except by the 
indirect process of Free Trade, which will gradually and im- 
perceptibly loose the bands which unite our Colonies to us by 
a mistaken notion of self-interest. Yet the Colonial policy of 
Europe has been the chief source of wars for the last hundred 
and fifty years. Again, Free Trade, by perfecting the intercourse, 
and securing the dependence of countries one upon another, must 

i To Mr. Bright, March 7, 1842. 2 To F. Cobden, March 10, 1842. 



Jfr.88.] THE NEW CORN LAW. 155 

inevitably snatch the power from the governments to plunge their 
people into wars. What do you think of changing your plan of 
a prize essay, from the Corn Law to Tree Trade as the best 
human means for securing universal and permanent peace.' This 
would be a good and appropriate prize to be given by members 
of the Society of Friends. At all events, in any way possible I 
should like to see the London Friends interested in the question 
of the Corn Law and Free Trade. They have a good deal of 
influence over the City moneyed interest, which has the ear of the 
Government." 1 

Besides these tentative projects of new alliances, he watched 
vigilantly every chance of suggesting a point to his allies outside. 
To Mr. Bright he wrote : — 

" If you have a leisure hour, I wish you would write an article 
upon the subject of the Queen's Letter to the parsons, ordering 
collections in the churches for the distressed. Here is a good 
opportunity for doing justice to the Dissenting ministers, who 
met last year to proclaim the miseries of the people, and to pro- 
pose a better remedy than almsgiving. The Church clergy are 
almost to a man guilty of causing the present distress by uphold- 
ing the Corn Law, they having themselves an interest in the high 
price of bread, and their present efforts must be viewed as tardy 
and inefficient, if not hypocritical. 

" Again, show how futile it must be to try to subsist the manu- 
facturing population upon charitable donations. The wages paid 
in the cotton trade alone amount to twenty millions a year. 
Reduce that amount even ten per cent, and how could it be made 
up by charity ? If you have also leisure for another article, make 
a swingeing assault upon the last general election, and argue from 
the disclosures made by the House of Commons itself, that we 
the Anti-Corn-Law party were not defeated, but virtually swin- 
dled and plundered of our triumph at the hustings." 2 

1 To Henry Ashworth, April 12, 1842. 

2 To Mr. Bright, May 12, 1842. In the following number of the Anti-Bread- 
Tax Circular (May 19), articles on the two subjects here suggested by Cobden 
duly appeared. "The clergy of the establishment," says the writer, with good 
strong plainness of speech, ' ' would do well to reflect upon their position in this 
matter. They have, with very few exceptions, upheld to the uttermost the unnat- 
ural system, which, after working during a period of twenty-seven years, causing 
more or less of suffering throughout the whole of its existence, has a,t length brought 
the nation to the yerge of ruin. They have almost to a man been the ever-active 
agents and allies of the monopolist party, and their restless energy in the worst of 
causes. has been mainly instrumental in carrying into office a Ministry whose only 
pledge was that the interests of the nation should be held subservient to the inter- 
ests of the land and colonial monopolists We fear that any attempt to 

raise contributions from the clergy, or by their agency, can only subject that 

body to the charge of gross ignorance or gross hypocrisy Their conduct 

contrasts strongly with the noble efforts of the Christian ministers who last year 
assembled in Manchester, in Carnarvon, and in Edinburgh, to declare their entire 



156 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

With reference to the first of the two themes which is here 
suggested, Cobden always felt keenly the wrong part taken 
throughout the struggle by the clergy of the Establishment. The 
rector of the church which he was in the habit of attending, Saint 
John's, in Deansgate, appealed to him for help towards an Asso- 
ciation for providing ten new churches in Manchester. Cobden 
in reply expressed his opinion of the project with wholesome 
frankness : — 

" It will be always very gratifying to me to second your chari- 
table efforts to relieve the distresses of our poor neighbors ; and if 
I do not co-operate in the plan for benefiting the destitute popu- 
lation on a large scale by erecting ten new churches, it is only 
because, in the words of the appeal, I ' differ about the means to 
be adopted.' You, who visit the abodes of poverty, are aware 
that a great portion of the working population of Manchester are 
suffering from an insufficiency of wholesome nourishment. The 
first and most pressing claim of the poor is for food : all other 
wants are secondary to this. It is in vain to try and elevate the ' 
moral and religious character of a people whose physical condition 
is degraded by the privation of the first necessaries of life ; and 
hence we are taught to pray for ' our daily bread ' before spiritual 
graces. There is a legislative enactment which prevents the poor 
of this town from obtaining a sufficiency of wholesome food, and 
I am sure the law only requires to be understood by our clergy 
to receive their unanimous condemnation. Surely a law of this 
kind, opposed alike to the laws of nature, the obvious dispensa- 
tions of divine providence, and the revealed word of God, must 
be denounced by the ministers of the Gospel. So convinced am 
I that there is no other mode of raising the condition of the 
working classes in the scale of morality or religion, whilst they 
are denied by Act of Parliament a sufficiency of food, that I have 
set apart as much of my income as I can spare from other claims 
for the purpose of effecting the abolition of the Corn Law and 
Provision Law. Until this object be attained I shall be com- 
pelled, to deny myself the satisfaction of contributing to other 
public undertakings of great importance in themselves, and secon- 
dary only to the first of all duties, — the feeding of the hungry. It 
is for this reason that I am reluctantly obliged to decline to con- 
tribute to the fund for building ten new churches. My course is, 
I submit, in strict harmony with the example afforded us by the 
divine author of Christianity, who preached upon the mountain 
and in the desert, beneath no other roof than the canopy of 
heaven, and who yet, we are told, was careful to feed the multi- 
abhorrence of the unjust and murderous system by which multitudes of honest 
and industrious men are made to suffer wrongs more grievous than can easily be 
described." 



JBt. 38.] SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NEW POLICY. 157 

tilde that flocked around him. You will, I am sure, excuse me 
troubling you at such length upon a subject which I conscien- 
tiously believe to be the most important in relation to the poor 
of any that can engage your attention." J 



CHAPTER XL 

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NEW POLICY. 

The new Corn Bill was the first of three acts in the great 
drama which Peel now unfolded to Parliament and the nation. 
Things looked as if the country were slowly sinking into decay. 
The revenue, which had been exhibiting deficits for several years, 
now fell short of the expenditure for the year current by two 
millions and a half. The working classes all over the land were 
suffering severe and undeniable distress. Population had in- 
creased to an extent at which it seemed no longer possible to find 
employment for them. To invite all the world to become our 
customers, by opening our ports to their products in exchange, 
was the Manchester remedy. It would bring both work and food. 
The Prime Minister believed that the revenue could be repaired, 
and the springs of industry relieved, without that great change in 
our economic policy. But he knew that the crisis was too deep 
for half-measures, and he produced by far the most momentous 
budget of the century. 

The Report of the Committee of 1840 on Import Duties was, 
as I have already mentioned, the starting-point of the revolution 
to which Peel now proceeded. It passed a strong condemnation 
on the existing tariff, as presenting neither congruity nor unity of 
purpose, and conforming to no general principles. Eleven hun- 
dred and fifty rates of duty were enumerated as chargeable on 
imported articles, and all other articles paid duty as unenumerated. 
In some cases the duties levied were simple and comprehensive ; 
in others they fell into vexatious and embarrassing details. The 
tariff often aimed at incompatible ends. A duty was imposed 
both for revenue and protection, and then was pitched so high for 
the sake of protection as to produce little or nothing to revenue. 
A great variety of particular interests were protected, to the detri- 
ment of the public income, as well as of commercial intercourse 
with other countries. The same preference was extended by 
means of discriminating duties to the produce of the colonies ; 

1 February, 1841. 



158 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

great advantages were given to the colonial interests at the ex- 
pense of the consumers in the mother country. 

It was pointed out that the effect of prohibitory duties was to 
impose on the consumer an indirect tax often equal to the whole 
difference of price between the British article and the foreign 
article which the duty kept out. On articles of food alone the 
amount taken in this way from the consumer exceeded the amount 
of all the other taxes levied by the Government. The sacrifices 
of the community did not end here, but were accompanied by 
injurious effects upon wages and capital. The duties diminished 
greatly the productive powers of the country ; and they limited 
our trade. The action of duties which were not prohibitory, but 
only protective, was of a similar kind. They imposed upon the 
consumer a tax equal to the amount of the duty levied on the 
foreign article ; but it was a tax which went not to the public 
treasury, but to the protected manufacturer. 

Evidence was taken to show that the protective system was not 
on the whole beneficial to the protected manufactures themselves. 
The amount of duties levied on the plea of protection to British 
manufactures did not exceed half a million sterling. Some even 
of the manufacturers supposed to be most interested in retaining 
the duties, were quite willing that they should be abolished. 

"With reference to the influence of the protective system on 
wages, and on the condition of the laborer, the Eeport was equally 
decided. As the pressure of foreign competition was heaviest on 
those articles in the production of which the rate of wages was 
lowest, so it was obvious in a country exporting so largely as Eng- 
land, that other advantages might more than compensate for an 
apparent advantage in the money price of labor. The countries 
in which the rate of wages is lowest, are not always those which 
manufacture most successfully. The Committee was persuaded 
that the best service that could be rendered to the industrious 
classes of the community, would be to extend the field of labor 
by an extension of our commerce. 

The conclusion was a strong conviction, in the minds of the 
Committee, of the necessity of an immediate change in the import 
duties of the kingdom. By imposts on a small number of those 
articles which were then most productive * — the amount of each 
impost being carefully considered with a view to the greatest con- 
sumption of the article, and therefore the highest receipts at the 
customs — the revenue would not only suffer no loss, but would 
be considerably augmented. 2 

1 Seventeen articles produced 94£ per cent of the total revenue, and these with 
twenty-nine other articles, or forty-six articles in all, produced 98| per cent. 

2 Much of the evidence which led to this Report is, in the present recrudescence 
of bad opinions, as well worth reading to-day as it was forty years ago — especially 



Mi. 38.] SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NEW POLICY. 159 

This Report was the charter of Free Trade. The Whig Govern- 
ment, as we have seen, had taken from it in a timid and blunder- 
ing way a weapon or two, with which they hoped that they might 
be able to defend their places. Their successor grasped its prin- 
ciples with the hand of a master. " My own conviction," said 
Cobden many years afterwards, " is that Peel was always a Free 
Trader in theory ; in fact, on all politico-economical questions, he 
was always as sound in the abstract as Adam Smith or Bentham. 
For he was peculiarly a politico-economical, and not a Protec- 
tionist, intellect. But he never believed that absolute Free 
Trade came within the category of practical House of Commons 
measures. It was a question of numbers with him ; and as he 
was yoked with a majority of inferior animals, he was obliged to 
go their pace, and not his own." 1 

This is true of Sir Robert Peel's mind throughout from 1843 
to 1846. But it seems only to be partially true of the moment 
when he brought in the great budget of 1842. Notwithstanding 
its fatal omission of the duties on corn, it was a Free Trade 
budget. Corn was excluded partly from the leaders' fear of the 
"inferior animals" whom it was his honorable but unhappy 
mission to drive, but partly also by an honest doubt in Peel's 
own mind, whether it was safe to depend on foreign countries 
for our supplies. The doubt was strong enough to warrant 
him, from his own point of view, in trying an experiment be- 
fore meddling with corn ; and a magnificent experiment it was. 
The financial plan of 1842 was the beginning of all the great 
things that have been done since. Its cardinal point was the 
imposition of a direct tax, in order to relax the commercial tariff. 
Ultimately the effect of diminishing duties was to increase reve- 
nue, but the first effect was a fall in revenue. It was expedient or 
indispensable for the revival of trade to lower or remit duties, and 
to purge the tariff. To bridge over the interval before increased 
trade and consumption made up for the loss thus incurred, the 
Government proposed to put on the income tax at the rate of seven- 
pence in the pound. They expected that the duration of the impost 
would probably be about five years. At the end of that time the 
loss caused by remissions would, they hoped, have been recovered. 

The new tariff was not laid before Parliament for some weeks. 2 

the evidence of Mr. J. Deacon Hume, who is not to be confused, by tbe way, with 
Joseph Hume, the chairman of the Committee. Cobden said that if the Committee 
had done nothing else but elicit this evidence, " it would have been sufficient to 
produce a commercial revolution all over the world." Mr. Hume's answers were 
largely circulated as one of the League tracts. This important blue-book, Import 
Duties, No. 601, was ordered to be printed, Aug. 6, 1840. 

1 To J. Parkes, May 26, 1856. 

2 The speech proposing the Income Tax was March 11. It was May 5 when Sir 
Robert Peel moved to go into Committee on the Tariff. 



160 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

The labor of preparation was enormous. Mr. Gladstone, who was 
then at the Board of Trade, and on whom much of the labor fell, 
said many years afterwards that he had been concerned in four 
revisions of the Tariff, namely, in 1842, in 1845, in 1854, and in 
1860 ; and he told Cobden that the first cost six times as much 
trouble as all the others put together. There was an abatement of 
duty on seven hundred and fifty articles. The object, as set forth 
by the Minister himself, speaking generally, was to reduce the 
duties on raw materials, which constituted the elements of manu- 
factures, to an almost nominal amount ; to reduce the duties on 
half-manufactured articles, which entered almost as much as raw 
material into domestic manufactures, to a nominal amount. In 
articles completely manufactured, their object had been to remove 
prohibitions and reduce prohibitory duties, so as to enable the for- 
eign producer to compete fairly with the domestic manufacturer. 
The general principle Sir Robert Peel went upon, was to make 
a considerable reduction in the cost of living. It is true that the 
duty on the importation of fresh and salted meat was lowered. 
It is true, too, that he could point to the new Corn Bill as having 
reduced the duty on wheat by more than a half. While he spoke, 
it was nine shillings under the new law, and twenty-three under 
the old one. But the sugar duties were untouched. It seemed 
a fatal, absurd, miserable flaw in the new scheme to talk of the 
main object being to lessen the charge of living, and then to leave 
bread and sugar, two great articles of universal consumption, bur- 
dened with heavy protective taxation. Many a League meeting 
in the next three years rang with fierce laughter at the expense 
of a Minister who talked of relieving the consumer, when he had 
taken the tax off dried fruits, cosmetics, satins, caviare, and left it 
upon the loaf of bread. 

The Tories followed reluctantly. The more acute among the 
Protectionists felt that the colonial interest would speedily be 
forced to surrender its advantage over the sugar of Cuba and 
Brazil ; and one member warned sympathetic hearers that, when 
the Tariff was passed, the next step to be expected was the repeal 
of the Corn Laws. The Minister found one remarkable champion 
on his own side, whose genius he failed to recognize. Mr. Disraeli 
laughed at the "Whigs for pretending to be the originators of Free 
Trade. It was Mr. Pitt, he said, who first promulgated its doc- 
trines ; and it was Fox, Burke, and Sheridan who then denounced 
the new commercial principles. The principles of Free Trade 
were developed, and not by Whigs, fifty years before ; and the 
conduct now pursued by Sir Robert Peel was in exact accordance 
and consistency with the principles for the first time promul- 
gated by Mr. Pitt. So far as it went, Mr. Disraeli's contention 
was perfectly correct. 



jEt. 38.] SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NEW POLICY. 161 

If the Protectionists were puzzled as well as annoyed by the 
new policy, so were the Free Traders. The following extracts 
from letters to his brother convey one or two of Cobden's earlier 
impressions about Peel. Of the measure he always thought the 
same, and the worst. By the end of the session Cobden had 
clearly discerned whither Peel's mind was turning. We who 
live a generation after the battle was won, may feel for a moment 
disappointed that Cobden did not at once judge the Minister's 
boldness in imposing the income tax as a means of reforming the 
tariff, in a more appreciative spirit. It is just, however, to re- 
member that in his letters we seize the first quick impressions of 
the hour ; that these first impressions were naturally those of cha- 
grin in one who saw that the new scheme, however good in its gen- 
eral bearings, omitted the one particular change that was needful. 
We must not expect from an energetic and clear-sighted actor, 
committed to an urgent practical cause, the dispassionateness of 
a historian whose privilege it is to be wise after the event. 

"What say the wise men to Sir Eobert's income tax? In 
other words, how do our mill-owners and shopkeepers like to be 
made to pay 1,200,000/. a year out of their profits, to insure the 
continuance of the corn and sugar monopolies ? I should think 
that the proposal to place profits upon a par with rent before the 
tax collector will not be vastly popular, unless the law can con- 
trive to keep up the former as it does the latter. The only im- 
portant change after all, announced last night, was timber 

Peel delivered his statement in a clear and clever way, never 
faltering nor missing a word in nearly a four hours' speech. This 
has gone far to convince our noodles on the Whig side that there 
is a great deal of good in his budget ; and I find even our friend 

J is inclined to praise the budget. But I fully expect that 

it will do much to render Peel vastly unpopular with the upper 
portion of the middle class, who will see no compensation in the 
tariff for a tax upon their incomes and profits. If this be the re- 
sult of the measure, it will do good to the Corn Law cause, by 
bringing the discontented to our ranks. Let me know what your 
wiseacres say about it." 1 

" Both the corn and income tax will be thrown over Easter I 
expect. Peel is very anxious to force on both measures, which I 
am not surprised at, seeing how he is badgered both in the House 
and out of doors. He gets at times very irritable, as you will 
have seen. It is a hard task to govern for a class, under the pre- 
tence of governing for the people. If he should be killed in the 
vain attempt to serve two such opposite masters, it is to be hoped 

1 To F. Cobden, March 12, 1842. 
11 



162 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

he will be the last man foolish enough to make the attempt. He 
is certainly looking very fagged and jaded. The income tax will 
do more than the Corn Law to destroy the Tories. The class of 
voters in the towns upon which they rely, are especially touched by 
his schemes. The genteel shopkeepers and professional men who 
depend upon appearances, and live by a false external, will never 
forgive him for exposing their tinsel. You will not hear of any 
public demonstration against the tax, but a much more effective 
resistance is being offered by the private remonstrance of Tory 
voters. There is very little feeling in the manufacturing districts 
compared with that of the southern boroughs. Peel is also under- 
mining his strength in the counties by displeasing everybody, and 
putting everything in disorder without settling anything. The 
worst danger is of the Whigs coming in again too soon. The 
hacks would be up on their hind legs, and at their old prancing 
tricks again, immediately they smelt the Treasury crib." 1 

" The truth is, your accounts make me feel very uneasy at my 
position. No earthly good can I do here. The thing must be 
allowed to work itself into some new shape — time only can tell 
what. We are nowhere on the opposition side at present. Peel 
must head a milieu party soon. If the old Duke were dead, he 
would quarrel with the ultra-Tories in a month. He is no more 
with them in heart than you or I, and I suspect there is now an 
accumulation of grudges between him and the more violent of his 
party, that can hardly be suppressed." 2 

" Peel is a Free-trader, and so are Eipon and Gladstone. The 
last was put in by the Puseyites, who thought they had insinuated 
the wedge, but they now complain that he has been quite ab- 
sorbed by Peel, which is the fact. Gladstone makes a very clever 
aide-de-camp to Peel, but is nothing without him. The Govern- 
ment are at their wits' end about the state of the country. The 
Devonshire House Whigs are beginning to talk of the necessity of 
supporting the Government in case of any serious troubles, which 
means a virtual coalition ; a point they are evidently being driven 
to by the force of events. Peel will throw overboard the bigots 
of his party, if he have the chance. But the real difficulty is the 
present state of the country. The accounts from every part are 
equally bad, and Chadwick says the poor-rates in the agricultural 
districts are rising rapidly. A great deal of land has been offered 
for sale during the last three months, and everything seems work- 
ing beautifully for a cure in the only possible way, viz., distress, 
suffering, and want of money. I am most anxious to get away 

1 To F. Golden, March 22, 1842. 2 To F. Cobden, April 11, 1842. 



JEt.38.] SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NEW POLICY. 163 

and come to Manchester ; I know the necessity of my presence, 
and shall let nothing but the corn question keep me." * 

" The last fortnight has done more to advance our cause than 
the last six or twelve months. The Peel party are fairly beaten 
in argument, and for the first time they are willing to listen to us 
as if they were anxious to learn excuses for their inevitable con- 
version. If I were disposed to be vain of my talk, I have had 
good reason, for both sides speak in praise of my two last efforts. 
The Reform and Carlton Clubs are both agreed as to my having 
pleaded the cause successfully. The real secret, however, is the 
irresistible pressure of the times, and the consciousness that the 
party in power can only exist by restoring the country to some- 
thing like prosperity. If nothing happens to revive trade, the 
Corn Law goes to a certainty before spring." 2 

" Peel and his squad will be right glad to get rid of the House, 
and I suspect it will not be his fault if he does not get a measure 
of Corn Law repeal ready before next session, to stop the mouths 
of the League men. He has been excessively worried by -our 
clique in the House, and I have reason to flatter myself with the 
notion that I have been a frequent thorn in his side. If distress 
should continue to favor us, we shall get something substantial in 
another twelve months, and I suspect we may bargain for the 
continuance of bad trade for that length of time at least." 3 

Something must be said of the two speeches of which Cobden 
speaks so lightly in one of these extracts. It was July before he 
made any prominent attack on the financial scheme. In March, 
when Peel had wished to press the Income Tax Bill forwards, 
Cobden had been one of a small group who persisted in obstruct- 
ive motions for adjournment, until Peel was at length forced to 
give way. He had also made remarks from time to time in Com- 
mittee. But the session was far advanced before he found a 
proper occasion for putting forward all the strength of his case. 

On July 1 a great debate was opened by Mr. Wallace of Gree- 
nock, upon the distress of the country. Mr. Disraeli pointed out, 
with much force and ingenuity, that the languid trade from 
which tbey were suffering would receive a far more powerful 
stimulus than the repeal of the Corn Laws could give, if Lord 
Palmerston had not, by a mischievous political treaty, put an end 
to a treaty of commerce with France, which would have opened 
new markets for all the most heavily stricken industries of Eng- 
land. Joseph Hume urged that the Government should either 

1 To F. Cobden, June 22, 1842. 2 To F. Cobden, July 14, 1842. 

8 To F. Cobden, July 20, 1842. 



164 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842. 

agree to an inquiry, or else adopt the remedy of a repeal of the 
Corn Laws. Lord John Eussell lamented the postponement of 
remedies, but would leave to the Government the responsibility 
of choosing their own time. The Prime Minister followed in a 
speech in which he confined himself to very narrow ground. It 
was rather a defence of his financial policy, than a serious recog- 
nition of the state of the country. 

This provoked Cobden to make his first great speech in the 
House (July 8). Mr. Eoebuck, who spoke the same evening, 
described it as " a speech fraught with more melancholy instruc- 
tion than it had ever been his lot to hear. A speech, in the inci- 
dents which it unfolded, more deeply interesting to the people of 
this country he had never heard in his life ; and these incidents 
were set forth with great ability and great simplicity." As a 
debating reply to the Prime Minister, it was of consummate 
force and vivacity. The facts which Cobden adduced supported 
his vigorous charge that Peel viewed the matter too narr&wly, 
and that circumstances were more urgent than he had chosen to 
admit. It was exactly one of those speeches which the House of 
Commons naturally delights in. It contained not a single waste 
sentence. Every one of Peel's arguments was met by detail 
and circumstance, and yet detail and circumstance the most mi- 
nute were kept alive by a stream of eager and on-pressing con- 
viction. Peel had compared the consumption of cotton in two 
half-years ; Cobden showed that for purposes of comparison they 
were the wrong half-years. Peel had talked of improved machin- 
ery for a time turning people out of employment ; Cobden proved 
with chapter and verse how gradual the improvement in the 
power-looms had been, and pointed out that Manchester, Bolton, 
Stockport, and other towns in the north, were really the creation 
of labor-saving machines. Peel had spoken as if it were merely a 
cotton question and a Manchester question : Cobden, out of the 
fulness of his knowledge, showed that the stocking-frames of 
Nottingham were as idle as the looms of Stockport, that the 
glass-cutters of Stourbridge and the glovers of Yeovil were under- 
going the same privation as the potters of Stoke and the .miners 
of Staffordshire, where five-and-twenty thousand were destitute 
of employment. He knew of a place where a hundred wedding- 
rings had been pawned in a single week to provide bread ; and of 
another place where men and women subsisted on boiled nettles, 
and dug up the decayed carcass of a cow rather than perish of 
hunger. " I say you are drifting to confusion," he exclaimed, 

"without rudder and without compass Those who are 

so fond of laughing at political economy forget that they have a 
political economy of their own : and what is it ? That they will 
monopolize to themselves the fruit of the industry of the great 



Mz. 38.] SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NEW POLICY. 165 

body of the community — that they allow the productions of the 
spindle and the loom to go abroad to furnish them with luxuries 
from the farthest corners of the world, but refuse to permit to be 
brought back in exchange what would minister to the wants and 
comforts of the lower orders. What would the consequence be ? 
We are sowing the seeds broadcast for a plentiful harvest of 
workmen in the western world. Thousands of workmen are delv- 
ing in the mines of the western continent, where coals can be 
raised for a shilling a ton. We are sending there the laborers 
from our cotton manufactories, from our woollen, and from our 
silk. They are not going by dozens or by scores to teach the 
people of other countries the work they have learnt — they are 
going in hundreds and thousands to those states to open works 
against our own machines, and to bring this country to a worse 
state than it is now in. There is nothing to atone for a system 
which leads to this ; and if I were to seek for a parallel, it would 
be only in the Revocation of the Edict of. Nantes by Louis XIV., 
or the decree of Alva in Belgium, where the best men were ban- 
ished from their country." 

Cobden gave additional strength to his appeal by showing that 
its eagerness was not due to a merely official partisanship. He 
saw no reason, he declared, why they should not take good meas- 
ures- from Sir Robert Peel, or why they should prefer those of 
Lord John Russell. " The noble Lord is called the leader on this 
side of the House, and I confess that when I first came into the 
House I was inclined to look upon him as a leader ; but from 
what I have seen, I believe the Right Hon. Baronet to be as lib- 
eral as the noble Lord. If the noble Lord is my leader, I can 
only say that I believe that in four out of five divisions I have 
voted against him. He must be an odd kind of leader who thus 
votes against those he leads. I will take measures of relief 
from the Right Hon. Baronet as well as from the noble Lord, but 

upon some measure of relief I will insist I give the 

Prime Minister credit for the difficulties of his situation ; but 
this question must be met, and met fully ; it must not be quib- 
bled away ; it must not be looked upon as a Manchester question ; 
the whole condition of the country must be looked at and faced, 
and it must be done before we separate this session." 

Three nights later (July 11), Sir Robert Peel took occasion to 
deal with some of Cobden's economic propositions, especially an 
assertion that in prosperous times improvements in machinery do 
not tend to throw laborers out of employment. At the close of 
his speech the Minister revealed the tentative spirit in which his 
great measures had been framed, and the half-open mind in which 
he was beginning to stand towards the Corn Law. If these meas- 
ures should not prove adequate to meet the distress of the coun- 



166 LIFE OP COBDEN. [1842. 

try, in that case, he said, " I shall be the first to admit that no 
adherence to former opinions ought to prevent their full and 
careful revision." 

Cobden, in the course of a vigorous reply, pointed to a historic 
parallel which truly described the political situation. He warned 
the aristocracy and the landowners never to expect to find another 
Prime Minister who would take office to uphold their monopoly. 
" They had killed Canning by thwarting him, and they would visit 
the same fate on their present leader, if he persevered in the same 
attempt to govern for the aristocracy, while professing to govern 
for the people." At this there were loud groans from some parts 
of the House. " Yes," repeated Cobden, undaunted, " they had 
killed Canning by forcing him to try and reconcile their interests 
with those of the people, and no human power could enable the 
Eight Hon. Baronet to survive the same ordeal." 



CHAPTEE XII. 

RENEWED ACTIVITY OF THE LEAGUE — COBDEN AND SIR 
ROBERT PEEL — RURAL CAMPAIGN. 

At the close of the session, Cobden hastened back to Manches- 
ter, where his business, as he too well knew, urgently required his 
presence. As we have seen, his brother's letters had begun to 
make him seriously uneasy as to his position. Affairs were already 
beginning to fall into disorder at Chorley and in Manchester, and 
in telling the story of Cobden's public activity, we have to remem- 
ber that almost from the moment of entering Parliament he began 
to be harassed by private anxieties of a kind which depress and 
unnerve most men more fatally than any other. Cobden's buoy- 
ant enthusiasm for his cause carried him forward ; it drove these 
haunting cares into the background, and his real life was not in 
his business, but in the affairs of the nation. 

In September he made an important speech to the Council of 
the League, at Manchester. It explains their relations to political 
parties, and to social classes. They had been lately charged, he 
said, with having been in collision with the Chartist party. But 
those who made this charge had themselves been working for the 
last three years to excite the Chartist party against the League, 
and that, too, by means that were not over-creditable. These 
intriguers had succeeded in deluding a considerable portion of the 
working classes upon the subject of the Corn Laws. " And I have 



Mt. 38.] RENEWED ACTIVITY OF THE LEAGUE. 167 

no objection in admitting here," Cobden went on to say, "as I 
have admitted frankly before, that these artifices and manoeuvres 
have, to a considerable extent, compelled us to make our agitation 
a middle-class agitation. I do not deny that the working classes 
generally have attended our lectures and signed our petitions ; but 
I will admit, that so far as the fervor and efficiency of our agita- 
tion has gone, it has eminently been a middle-class agitation. 
We have carried it on by those means by which the middle class 
usually carries on its movements. We have had our meetings of 
dissenting ministers ; we have obtained the co-operation of the 
ladies ; we have resorted to tea-parties, and taken those pacific 
means for carrying out our views which mark us rather as a 
middle-class set of agitators. . . . We are no political body ; we 
have refused to be bought by the Tories ; we have kept aloof 
from the Whigs ; and we will not join partnership with either 
Radicals or Chartists, but we hold out our. hand ready to give it to 
all who are willing to advocate the total and immediate repeal of 
the corn and provision laws." 

In another speech, he said the great mass of the people stuck 
to the bread-tax because it was the law. " He did not charge the 
great body of the working classes with taking part against the 
repeal of the Corn Laws, but he charged the great body of the 
intelligent mechanics with standing aloof, and allowing a parcel 
of lads, with hired knaves for leaders, to interrupt their meetings." 
As time went on, the share of the working class in the movement 
became more satisfactory. Meanwhile, it is important to notice 
that they held aloof, or else opposed it as interfering with those 
claims of their own to political power, which the Reform Act had 
so unexpectedly balked. 

Recovering themselves from the disappointment and confusion 
of the spring, the agitators applied themselves with invigorated 
resolution to their work. 

They had been spending a hundred pounds a week. They 
ought now, said Cobden, to spend a thousand. Up to this time 
the Council of the League had had twenty-five thousand pounds 
through their hands, of which by far the larger portion had been 
raised in Manchester and the neighboring district. About three 
times that sum had been raised and expended by local associations 
elsewhere. In all, therefore, a hundred thousand pounds had 
gone, and the Corn Laws seemed more immovable than ever. 
With admirable energy, the Council now made up their minds at 
once to raise a new fund of fifty thousand pounds, and, notwith- 
standing the terrible condition of the cotton trade, the amount was 
collected in a very short time. Men contributed freely because 
they knew that the rescue of their capital depended on the opening 
of markets from which the protection on corn excluded them. 



168 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1842- 

"You will have observed," Cobden wrote to Mr. Edward Baines, 
" that the Council of the League are determined upon a renewed 
agitation upon a great scale, provided they can get a commensu- 
rate pecuniary help from the country, and my object in troubling 
you is to beg that you will endeavor to rouse the men of the West 
Biding to another effort. 

" The scheme which we especially aim at carrying out is this : 
— To make an attack upon every registered elector of the king- 
dom, county, and borough, by sending to each a packet of publica- 
tions embracing the whole argument as it affects both the agricul- 
tural and trading view of the question. We are procuring the 
copies of the registers for the purpose. But the plan involves an 
expense of 20,000/. Add to this our increased expenditure in 
lectures, etc., and the contemplated cost of the spring deputations 
in London, and we shall require 50,000/. to do justice to the cause 
before next June. And we have a Spartan band of men in Man- 
chester who are setting to work in the full confidence that they 
will raise the money. The best way to levy contributions on the 
public for a common object is to set up a claim, and therefore 
Manchester men must not in public declare the country in their 
debt. But between ourselves this is the case to a large extent. 
The agitation, though a national one, and for national objects, has 
been sustained by the pockets of the people here to the extent of 
10 to 1 against the whole kingdom ! 

" A vast proportion of our expenditure has been of a kind to 
bring no eclat, such as the wide distribution of tracts in the purely 
agricultural districts, and the subsidizing of literary talent which 
does not appear in connection with the League. If I had the op- 
portunity of a little gossip with you, I could give you proof of 
much efficient agitation for which the League does not get credit 
publicly. There is danger, however, in the growing adversity of 
this district, that we may pump our springs dry, and it is more 
and more necessary to widen the circle of our contributors. We 
confidently rely on your influential co-operation. 

" Eecollect that our primary object is to work the printing-press, 
not upon productions of our own, but producing the essence of 
authoritative writers, such as Deacon Hume, Lord Fitzwilliam, 
etc., and scattering them broadcast over the land. Towards such 
an object no Free-trader can scruple to commit himself. And in 
no other human war that I am acquainted with, can we accomplish 
our end by moral and peaceable means. There is no use in blink- 
ing the real difficulties of our task, which is the education of 
twenty-seven millions of people, an object not to be accomplished 
except by the cordial assistance of the enlightened and patriotic in 
all parts of the kingdom." x 

1 To Edward Baines, Oct. 25, 1842. 



.Et.38.1 RENEWED ACTIVITY OF THE LEAGUE. 169 

The staff of lecturers was again despatched on its missionary- 
errand. To each elector in the kingdom was sent a little library 
of tracts. Tea parties followed by meetings were found to be more 
attractive in the northern towns than meetings without tea parties. 
Places where meetings had been thinly attended, now produced 
crowds. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Ashworth, and the other chief 
speakers, again scoured the country north of the Trent ; and at 
the end of the year, the first two of these, along with Colonel Per- 
ronet Thompson — the author of the famous Catechism of the Com 
Laws, and styled by Cobden the father of them all — proceeded on 
a pilgrimage to Scotland. 

" Our progress ever since we crossed the border," Cobden writes, 
" has been gratifying in the extreme. Had we been disposed to 
encourage a display of enthusiasm, we might have frightened the 
more nervous of the monopolists with our demonstrations. As it 
is, we have been content to allow honors to be thrust upon us in 
our own persons, or rather mine, by the representatives of the 
people. Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Dundee, Perth, and Stir- 
ling, have all presented me with the freedom of their burghs, and 
I have no doubt I could have become a free citizen of every cor- 
porate town in Scotland by paying them a visit. 1 All this is due 
to the principles we advocate, for I have done all I could to dis- 
courage any personal compliments to myself. Scotland is fairly 
up now, and we shall have more in future from this side of the 
Tweed upon the Corn Law. We go to-day to Glasgow to attend 
another Free-trade banquet. To-morrow we proceed to Edinburgh, 
where I shall remain a few days to go through the ceremony of 
becoming a citizen of Auld Eeekie, and then go forward to New- 
castle to join Colonel Thompson and Bright (who have both been 
working miracles), who will take Hawick by the way for a meeting 
on Thursday evening." 2 

" I shall be with you at the end of the week. The work has been 
too heavy for me, and I have been obliged to throw an extra share 
upon Bright and the old veteran Colonel. I caught cold in coming 
from Carlisle to Glasgow by night, and have not got rid of it. To- 
day has, however, been very fine, and I have enjoyed a long walk 
with George Combe into the country, looking at the farm-houses, 
each of which has a tall chimney attached belonging to the engine- 
house. I am obliged to come from Glasgow here on Thursday to 
go through the ceremony of receiving the freedom of this city. 
Upon the whole, I am satisfied with the aspect of things in Scot- 

1 It is worth noticing that in Glasgow this honor was conferred upon him, not 
merely on the ground of his public action, but because, in the words of his proposer, 
by his ingenuity as a calico printer, he had brought that manufacture to such a 
state of perfection that we were now able to compete with the printers of France and 
Switzerland. 

2 To George Wilson, Stirling, Jan. 18, 1843. 



170 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

land. I am not afraid of their going back from their convictions, 
and there is scarcely a man who is not against the present law, 
and nearly all are going on to total repeal. Fox Maules's conver- 
sion is important. He is heir to 80,000/. a year in land, 40,000 
acres under the plough." 1 

From Dundee, through Hawick, the deputation crossed the 
border to Newcastle, Sunderland, Darlington, and other towns of 
that region. On their return to head-quarters, Mr. Bright recounted 
to a crowded meeting at Manchester what they had done, and he 
summed up their impressions of Scotland in words that deserve to 
be put on record. There were some general features, Mr. Bright 
said, which struck him very strongly in their tour through Scotland. 
" In the first place, I believe that the intelligence of the people in 
Scotland is superior to the intelligence of the people of England. 
I take it from these facts. Before going to the meetings, we often 
asked the committee or the people with whom we came in contact, 
■ Are there any fallacies which the working people hold on this 
question ? Have they any crotchets about machinery, or wages, or 
anything else ? ' And the universal reply was, ' No ; you may make 
a speech about what you like ; they understand the question thor- 
oughly ; and it is no use confining yourself to machinery or wages, 
for there are few men, probably no man here, who would be taken 
in by such raw jests as those.' Well, if the workingmen are 
so intelligent in Scotland, how are the landowners ? You find, in 
that country, that the science of farming is carried to a degree of 
perfection which is almost unknown in England. You find them 
with a climate not so kind and genial as ours, for they often fail 
in gathering in wheat when the farmers in the south of England 
succeed ; they have land not naturally so fertile as ours, and many 
are not so near a market to take off the whole of their produce as 
our farmers are ; but we find there that the landowners are intel- 
ligent enough to know that the monopolists themselves rarely 
thrive under the monopolies they are so fond of, and that it would 
be much better for them to be subjected to the same wholesome 
stimulus which persons in othe^ pursuits feel, and which is alike 
beneficial to the people so engaged, and to those who purchase the 
articles they produce. .... Well, then, as to the middle classes of 
Scotland, I hold that the municipalities of Scotland represent the 
opinion of the middle classes. In Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, 
and other towns, we found that the members of the corporations 
were a true index to the opinion of the main body of the inhab- 
itants of the town in which it was situate. Now, in Glasgow, 
Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling, the highest 
honor which the municipal authorities of these cities and towns 

1 To F. Cobden, Jan. 15, 1843. 



.&T.39.] RENEWED ACTIVITY OF THE LEAGUE. 171 

can give, has been conferred upon that man who is in all parts of 
the country, and throughout the world, recognized as the impersona- 
tion of Free Trade principles, and of the Anti-Corn-Law League. 

" Scotland, in former ages, was the cradle of liberty, civil and 
religious. Scotland, now, is the home of liberty ; and there are 
more men in Scotland, in proportion to its population, who are in 
favor of the rights of man than there are in any other equal 

proportion of the population of this country I told them 

that they were the people who should have repeal of the Union ; 
for that, if they were separate from England, they might have a 
government wholly popular and intelligent, to a degree which 
I believe does not exist in any other country on the face of the 
earth. However, I believe they will be disposed to press us on, 
and make us become more and more intelligent ; and we may 
receive benefit from our contact with them, even though, for some 
ages to come, our connection with them may be productive of evil 
to themselves." 

In England, at least, it is certain that the amazing vigor and res- 
olution of the League were regarded with intense disfavor by great 
and important classes. The League was thoroughly out of fashion. 
It was regarded as violent, extreme, and not respectable. A year 
before, it had usually been described as a selfish and contemptible 
faction. By the end of 1842 things had become more serious. 
The notorious pamphleteer of the Quarterly Review now denounced 
the League as the foulest and most dangerous combination of 
recent times. The Times spoke of Cobden, Bright, and their 
allies, as " capering mercenaries who go frisking about the coun- 
try ; " as authors of incendiary clap-trap ; as peripatetic orators 
puffing themselves into an easy popularity by second-hand argu- 
ments. They were constantly accused of retarding their own 
cause, and frightening away respectable people, by their violence. 
Violence, as usual, denoted nothing more than that they knew 
their own minds, and pressed their convictions as if they were in 
earnest. In the earlier part of the autumn there had been a 
furious turn-out of the operatives in the mills, and later on in the 
season ricks had been burnt in the midland and southern counties. 
The League, in spite of the fact that its leaders were nearly all 
mill-owners, or connected with manufactures, was accused of pro- 
moting these outrages. There were loud threats of criminal 
proceedings against the obnoxious confederacy. It was rumored 
on the Manchester Exchange that the Government had resolved 
to put down the League as an association constituted against the 
law of the land. If necessary, a new law would be made to 
enable them to suppress a body so seditious. This heat in the 
minds of the ruling class made them anxious at almost any cost 
to destroy Cobden, who was now openly recognized as the fore- 



172 LIFE OF COBDEN. [18ft. 

most personage in the detested organization. This partly explains 
what now followed. 

The session of 1843 opened with the most painful incident in 
Cobden's parliamentary life. It is well to preface an account of 
it, by mentioning an event that happened on the eve of the ses- 
sion. Mr. Drummond, the private secretary of the Prime Minister, 
was shot in Parliament Street, and in a few days died from the 
wound. The assassin was Daniel M'Naghten, a mechanic from 
Glasgow, who at the trial was acquitted on the ground of insan- 
ity. From something that he said to a police inspector in his 
cell, the belief got abroad that in firing at Mr. Drummond he 
supposed that he was dealing with Sir Robert Peel. The evidence 
at the trial showed even this to be very doubtful, and in any case 
the act was simply that of a lunatic. But it shook Sir Eobert 
Peel's nerves. He was known by those who were intimate with 
him to have a morbid sensibility to whatever was physically 
painful or horrible. It has always been believed that his distress 
at the circumstances of Mr. Drummond's death was the secret of 
the scene with Cobden which we have now to describe. 

Lord Howick on an early night in the session moved that the 
House should resolve itself into a committee to consider a passage 
in the Queen's speech, in which reference had been made to the 
prevailing distress. The debate on the motion was a great affair, 
and extended over five nights. It was a discussion worthy of the 
fame of the House of Commons — a serious effort on the part of 
most of those who contributed to it, to shed some light on the 
difficulties in which the country was involved. Cobden spoke on 
the last night of the debate (Feb. 17). He answered in his usual 
dexterous and argumentative way the statements of Lord Stanley, 
Mr. Gladstone, and other opponents of a repeal of the Corn Law, 
and then he proceeded to a fervent remonstrance with the Prime 
Minister. I quote some of the sentences which led to what 
followed : " If you (Sir Robert Peel) try any other remedy than 
ours, what chance have you for mitigating the condition of the 
country ? You took the Corn Laws into your own hands after a 
fashion of your own, and amended them according to your own 
views. You said that you were uninfluenced in what you did by 
any pressure from without on your judgment. You acted on your 
own judgment, and would follow no other, and you are responsible 
for the consequences of your act. You said that your object was 
to find more employment for the increasing population. Who so 
likely, however, to tell you what markets could be extended, 
as those who are engaged in carrying on the trade and manufac- 
tures of the country? .... You passed the law, you refused to 
listen to the manufacturers, and / throiv on you all the respond- 



.Et.39.] COBDEN AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. 173 

bility of your own measure The right hon. Baronet acted 

on his own judgment, and he retained the duty on the two articles 
on which a reduction of duty was desired, and he reduced the 
duties on those on which there was not a possibility of the change 
being of much service to the country. It was folly or ignorance. 
{Oh ! Oh !) Yes, it was folly or ignorance to amend our system 
of duties, and leave out of consideration sugar and corn. The 
reduction of the duties on drugs and such things was a proper 
task for some Under-Secretary of State, dealing with the sweep- 
ings of office, but it was unworthy of any Minister, and was devoid 
of any plan. It was one of the least useful changes that ever 

was proposed by any Government It is his duty, he says, 

to judge independently, and act without reference to any pressure ; 
and I must tell the right hon. Baronet that it is the duty of 
every honest and independent member to hold him individually 

responsible for the present position of the country I tell 

the right hon. gentleman that I, for one, care nothing for "Whigs 
or Tories. I have said that I never will help to bring back the 
Whigs ; but I tell him that the whole responsibility of the lam- 
entable and dangerous state of the country rests with him. It ill 
becomes him to throw that responsibility on any one at this side. 
I say there never has been violence, tumult, or confusion, except 
at periods when there has been an excessive want of employment, 
and a scarcity of the necessaries of life. The right hon. Baronet 
has the power in his hands to do as he pleases." 

When Cobden'sat down, the Prime Minister rose to his feet, 
with signs of strong agitation in his usually impassive bearing. 
" Sir," he said, " the honorable gentleman has stated here very em- 
phatically, what he has more than once stated at the conferences 
of the Anti-Corn- Law League, that he holds me individually — " 
Here the speaker was interrupted by the intense excitement which 
his emphasis on the word, and the growing passion of his manner, 
had rapidly produced among his audience. " Individually respon- 
sible," he resumed, " for the distress and suffering of the country ; 
that he holds me personally responsible. But be the consequences 
of these insinuations what they may, never will I be influenced 
by menaces, either in this House, or out of this House, to adopt a 
course which 1 consider — " The rest of the sentence was lost 
in the shouts which now rose from all parts of the House. Cob- 
den at once got up, but to little purpose. " I did not say," he 
began, " that I hold the right hon. gentleman personally responsi- 
ble." Vehement cries arose on every side ; " Yes, yes " — "You 
did, you did " — " Order " — " Chair." " You did," called out Sir 
Eobert Peel. Cobden went on, " I have said that I hold the right 
hon. gentleman responsible by virtue of his office, as the whole 
context of what I said was sufficient to explain." 



174 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

The enraged denials and the confusion with which the Minis- 
terial benches broke into his explanation, showed Cobden that it 
was hopeless for the moment to attempt to clear himself. Sir 
Eobert Peel resumed by reiterating the charge that Cobden had 
twice declared that he would hold the Minister individually re- 
sponsible. This inauspicious beginning was the prelude of a 
strong and careful speech ; as strong a speech as could be made 
by a minister who was not prepared to launch into the full tide 
of Cobden's own policy, 1 and had only doubtful arguments about 
practical convenience to bring against the stringent pleas of logi- 
cal consistency. What astonishes us is that such a performance 
should have followed such a preface. Those who have written 
about Sir Eobert Peel's character have always been accustomed 
to say that, though there was originally a vein of fiery temper 
in him, yet he had won perfect mastery over it; and his out- 
burst against Cobden was the only occasion when he seemed to 
fall into the angry impetuosity that was familiar enough on the 
lips of O'Connell, or Stanley, or Brougham. He was taunted 
before long by Mr. Disraeli with imitating anger as a tactical de- 
vice, and taking the choleric gentleman for one of his many parts. 
Whether his display of emotion against Cobden was artificial or 
a genuine result of overstrung nerves, was disputed at the time, 
and it is disputed to this day by those who witnessed the scene. 
The display was undoubtedly convenient for the moment in 
damaging a very troublesome adversary. 

Lord John Russell, who spoke after the Minister, had no par- 
ticular reason to be anxious to defend so dubious a follower as 
Cobden, but his honorable spirit revolted against the unjust and 
insulting demeanor of the House. " I am sure," he said, " that 
for my own part, and I believe I can answer for most of those 
who sit round me, that the same sense was not attached to the 
honorable member for Stockport's words, as has been attached by 
the right honorable Baronet and honorable members opposite." 
When Lord John Eussell had finished a speech that practically 
wound up the debate, Cobden returned to his explanation, and 
amid some interruptions from the opposite benches, as well as 
from the Speaker on a point of order, again insisted that he had 
intended to throw the responsibility of the Minister's measures 
upon him as the head of the Government. In using the word 
" individually," he used it as the Minister himself used the per- 

1 The peroration of this speech is an admirably eloquent comparison between the 
pacific views of Wellington and Soult — "men who have seen the morning sun rise 
upon living masses of fiery warriors, so many of whom were to be laid in the grave 
before that sun should set" — and "anonymous and irresponsible writers in the 
public journals, who are doing all they can to exasperate the differences that have 
prevailed ; and whose efforts were not directed by zeal for the national honor, but 
employed for the base purposes of encouraging national animosity, or promoting 
personal or party interest." 



JlT.39.] COBDEN AND STR ROBERT PEEL. 175 

sonal pronoun when lie said, " I passed the tariff." " I treat him," 
Cobden concluded, " as the Government, as he is in the habit of 
treating himself." 

Very stiffly Peel accepted the explanation. " I am bound to 
accept the construction which the honorable member puts upon 
the language he employed. He used the word ' individually ' in 
so marked a way, that I and others put upon it a different expla- 
nation. He supposes the word 'individually' to mean public 
responsibility in the situation I hold, and I admit it at once. I 
thought the words he employed, ' I hold you individually respon- 
sible,' might have an effect, which I think many other gentlemen 
who heard them might anticipate." 

The sitting was not to end without an assault on Cobden from 
a different quarter. Sir Eobert Peel had no sooner accepted one 
explanation, than Mr. Eoebuck made a statement that demanded 
another. He taxed Cobden with having spoken of Lord Brougham 
as a maniac ; with having threatened his own seat at Bath ; and 
with having tolerated the use of such reprehensible and dangerous 
language by members of the League, as justified Lord Brougham's 
exhortation to all friends of Corn Law Eeform to separate them- 
selves from such evil advisers. This incident sprang from some 
words which Brougham had used in the House of Lords a week 
before. They are a fine example of parliamentary mouthing, and 
of that cheap courage which consists in thundering against the 
indiscretions of an unpopular friend. If anything could retard 
the progress of the doctrines of the League, he had said, " it would 
be the exaggerated statements and violence of some of those con- 

DO 

nected with their body — the means adopted by them at some of 
their meetings to excite — happily they have not much succeeded 
— to excite discontent and breakings-out into violence in differ- 
ent parts of the country ; and, above all, I cannot discharge my 
duty to your Lordships and to my own conscience, if I do not 
express the utter abhorrence and disgust with which I have noted 
some men — men clothed with sacred functions, though I trust 
unconnected with the League, who have actually in this very 
metropolis of a British and Christian community, and in the mid- 
dle of the nineteenth century of the gospel of grace and peace, 
not scrupled to utter words to which I will not at present more 
particularly allude, but which I abhor, detest, and scorn, as being 
calculated to produce fatal effects — I will not say have produced 
them — but calculated to produce the taking away of innocent life." 
Cobden, as we might expect, had spoken freely of this rebuke 
as the result of a reckless intellect and a malignant spirit, or 
words to that effect. 1 Nobody can think that Mr. Koebuck had 

1 Mr. Bright also took the matter up in correspondence with Lord Brougham, 
and the language on both sides is as pithy as might be expected. (Feb. 15-24.) 



176 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

chosen his moment very chivalrously. Even now, when time and 
death are throwing the veil of kindly oblivion over the struggle, 
we read with some satisfaction the denunciation by Mr. Bright, 
of the " Brummagem Brougham, who, when the whole Ministerial 
side of the House was yelling at the man who stood there, the 
very impersonation of justice to the people, stood forward and 
dared to throw his puny dart at Eichard Cobden." There is 
hardly an instance which illustrates more painfully the ungener- 
ous, the unsparing, the fierce treatment for which a man must be 
prepared who enters public life in the House of Commons. The 
sentiment of the House itself was against Cobden. It always is 
more or less secretly against any one of its members who is known 
to have a serious influence outside, and to be raising the pub- 
lic opinion of constituencies to an inconveniently strong pitch. 
Cobden was scarcely allowed to explain what he had really said 
to Mr. Roebuck. It was simply this: — "If you justify Lord 
Brougham in this attack on the ministers who attend the confer- 
ence of the Anti-Corn-Law League, you will get into trouble at 
Bath, and you will be considered the opponent of that body, and 
you will have your Anti-Corn-Law tea parties, and some members 
of the League visiting Bath. So far from wishing to see Mr. 
Roebuck out of Parliament," Cobden concluded, " he is the last 
man I should wish to see removed from the seat which he now 
holds." 

Cobden's own remarks on this unhappy evening are better than 
any that an outsider can offer. To his brother Frederick he wrote 
as follows : — 

" The affair of last Friday seems to be working more and more 
to our advantage. It has been the talk of everybody here, from 
the young lady on the throne, down to the back-parlor visitors of 
every pot-house in the metropolis. And the result seems to be a 
pretty general notion that Peel has made a great fool of himself, 
if not something worse. He is obliged now to assume that he 
was in earnest, for no man likes to confess himself a hypocrite, 
and to put up with the ridicule of his own party in private as a 

coward. Lord was joking with Ricardo in the House the 

other night about him ; pointing towards Peel as he was leaning 
forward, he whispered, ' There, the fellow is afraid somebody is 
taking aim at him from the gallery.' Then the pack at his back 
are not very well satisfied with themselves at having been so pal- 
pably dragged through the mud by him, for they had evidently 
not considered that I was threatening him. Indeed the fact of 
their having called for Bankes to speak after I sat down, and 
whilst Peel was on his legs, clearly showed (and they cannot 
escape from the unpleasant reflection) that they were unconscious 



^t.39.] COBDEN AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. 177 

of any grievance being felt by the latter, and that they considered 
the personality to refer to the former. They now feel themselves 
convicted of having taken the cue from Peel and joined en masse 
(without a conviction in their own minds to sanction the course 
they took) in hunting me down as an assassin. They will hear 
more of it. But the best part of the whole affair is that everybody 
of every shade of politics has read my speech carefully, in order 
to be able to judge of Peel's grounds of attack upon me. The 
consequence is that all the Tories of Oxford, as I learn, have been 
criticising every word of it, and the result, I am told, is unfa- 
vorable to Peel He is looking twenty per cent worse since 

I came into the House, and if I had only Bright with me, we 
could worry him out of office before the close of the session. 1 

" The thing is on its last legs. The wholesale admissions of our 
principles by the Government must prove destructive to the sys- 
tem in no very long time. The whole matter turns upon the 
possibility of their finding a man to fill the office of executioner 
for them, and when Peel bolts or betrays them, the game is up. 
It is this conviction in my mind which induced me after some 
deliberation to throw the responsibility upon Peel, and he is not 
only alarmed at it, but indiscreet enough to let everybody know 
that he is so Our meeting last night was a wonderful exhi- 
bition. In the course of a couple of months we will have entire 
possession of the metropolis. Nothing will alarm Peel so much 
as exhibitions of strength and feeling at his own door. I am 
overdone from all parts with letters and congratulations, and can 
hardly find time to say a word to my friends." 2 

The enemies of the League made the most of what had hap- 
pened. They spoke of Cobden as politically ruined, and ruined 
beyond retrieval. Brougham, with hollow pity, wrote about the 
" downfall of poor Mr. Cobden." It soon appeared that there was 
another side to the matter. Meetings were held to protest against 
the treatment which Cobden had received from the Minister and 
the House ; sympathetic addresses were sent to him from half the 
towns in England, and all the towns in Scotland ; and for many 
weeks afterwards, .whenever he appeared in a public assembly, he 
was greeted with such acclamations as had seldom been heard in 
public assemblies before. We may believe that Cobden was per- 
fectly sincere when he said to one of his friends : — "I dislike 
this personal matter for many good reasons, public and private. 

1 Mr. Bright, as it happened, was returned to Parliament before the end of the 
session. He contested Durham in April, 1843, and was beaten by Lord Dungan- 
non. The new member was unseated on petition, on the ground of bribery. Mr. 
Bright again offered himself, and was elected (July, 1843). 

2 To F. Cobden, Feb. 23, 1843. 

12 



178 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

We must avoid any of this individual glorification in the future. 
My forte is simplicity of action, hard working behind the scenes, 
and common sense in council ; but I have neither taste nor apti- 
tude for these public displays." * 

At Manchester some eight thousand men and women met to 
hear stirring speeches on the recent affair. Mr. Bright moved a 
resolution for an address to Cobden, in words that glow with 
noble and energetic passion, while they keep clear of hero-wor- 
ship. " I do not stand up," he said, " to flatter the member for 
Stockport. I believe him to be a very intelligent and very honest 
man ; I believe that he will act with a single eye to the good of 
his country ; I believe that he is firmly convinced of the truth of 
the great principles of which he is so distinguished an advocate." 

It was in reply to this address from Manchester, that Cobden 
wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Potter, with which we may close a 
very disagreeable episode : — 

" I have just received an address signed by upwards of 31,000 
inhabitants of Manchester, declaring their approval of my public 
conduct as an advocate of the principle of commercial freedom, 
and their indignation at a late attempt to give a perverted and hate- 
ful meaning to my language in Parliament. Allow me through you, 
who have done me the honor to place your name at the head of 
the list of signatures, to convey to your fellow-townsmen the ex- 
pression of my heartfelt gratitude for this manifestation of their 
sympathy and confidence. 

" Whilst I unfeignedly profess my unworthiness to receive such 
a flattering and unexpected testimonial in reward for my public 
services generally, I should feel degraded indeed if I could not 
conscientiously accept the prompt repudiation of the conduct im- 
puted to me on a recent occasion. Nay, I should feel it to be 
derogatory from my character as a man and a Christian, that my 
countrymen should come forward to repel the misinterpretation 
which has been given to my words, were it not necessary on 
public grounds to prevent the First Minister of the Crown from 
evading, under any misconstruction of language, his responsibility 
for the alarming consequences of the measures of his Government 
— a responsibility not to the hand of the assassin, but a constitu- 
tional and moral responsibility which has been defined in the lan- 
guage of Edmund Burke : ' Where I speak of responsibility, I do 
not mean to exclude that species of it which the legal powers of 
the country have a right finally to exact from those who abuse a 
public trust : but high as this is, there is a responsibility which 
attaches on them, from which the whole legitimate power of this 

1 To E. Baines, March 8, 1843. 



^lT.39.] COBDEN AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. 179 

kingdom cannot absolve them. There is a responsibility to con- 
science and to glory, a responsibility to the existing world, and to 
that posterity which men of their eminence cannot avoid for glory 
or for shame — a responsibility to a tribunal at which not only 
ministers, but kings and parliaments, but even nations themselves, 
must one day answer.' 1 

" Never at any period of our history did this constitutional and 
moral responsibility attach more strongly to a minister than at 
the present moment, when the country is struggling, amidst dis- 
tress and embarrassment the most alarming, against a system of 
monopoly which threatens the ruin of our manufactures and com- 
merce. That this system, with its disastrous consequences of a 
declining trade, a sinking revenue, increasing pauperism, and 
a growing disaffection in the people, owes its continuance to the 
support of the present Prime Minister more than to that of his 
entire party, few persons who have had the opportunity of observ- 
ing the manner in which he individualizes in his own person the 
powers of government, will deny. 

" That the withdrawal of his support from this pernicious system 
would do more at the present moment than all the efforts of the 
friends of Free Trade to effect the downfall of monopoly has been 
proclaimed upon high authority from his own side of the House. 
' If the right hon. Baronet,' said Mr. Liddell, member for North 
Durham, in the debate, Feb. 3, 'had shown any symptoms of 
wavering in the support of the Corn Law, which he had himself 
put upon a sound footing last year, such conduct would have 
been productive of a hundred times more mischief than all the 
denunciations of the Anti-Corn-Law Leao-ue.' With such evi- 
dences of the power possessed by the First Minister of the Crown, 
I should have been an unworthy representative of the people, and 
a traitor to the suffering interests of my constituents, had I failed 
in my duty of reminding him of his accountability for the proper 
exercise of his power. 

" Sanctioned and sustained as I have been by the approving 
voice of the inhabitants of Manchester, and of my countrymen 
generally, I shall go forward undeterred by the arts or the violence 
of my opponents, in that course to which a conscientious sense of 
public duty impels me ; and whilst studiously avoiding every 
ground of personal irritation — for our cause is too vast in its 
objects, and too good and Coo strong in its principles, to be made 
a mere topic of personal altercation — I shall never shrink from 
declaring in my place in Parliament the constitutional doctrine 
of the inalienable responsibility of the First Minister of the Crown 
for the measures of his Government." 2 

1 These are the closing words of the Third Letter on a Regicide Peace. 

2 To Sir Thomas Potter, March 1, 1843. 



180 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

A few days after the scene in the House of Commons, the first 
of those great meetings was held, which eventually turned opinion 
in London in good earnest to the views of the League. The 
Crown and Anchor and the Freemasons' Tavern had become too 
small to hold the audiences. Drury Lane Theatre was hired, and 
here seven meetings were held between the beginning of March 
and the beginning of May. The crowds who thronged the theatre 
were not always the same in keenness and energy of perception, 
but their numbers never fell short, and their enthusiasm grew 
more intense as they gradually mastered the case, and became bet- 
ter acquainted with the persons and characters of the prominent 
speakers. In the following letter to his brother, Cobden hints at 
the special advantage which he expected from these gatherings : — 

" There is but one of their lies," he says, referring to the gossip 
of the Tories, " that I should care to make them prove ; that is 
that our business is worth 10,000/. a year! By the way, it is a 
wholesome sign that my middle-class popularity seems rather to 
be increased by my avowal of my origin ; and for the first time 
probably a man is served by that aristocratic class, who owes 
nothing to birth, parentage, patronage, connections, or education. 
Don't listen to the nonsense about our being prosecuted. The 
enemy has burnt his fingers already by meddling with the Leaguers. 
Wait till we have held two or three weekly meetings in Drury 
Lane Theatre, and you will see that we are not the men to be put 
to the ordeal of a middle-class jury. Our metropolitan gatherings 
are bona-fide demonstrations of earnest energetic men of the 
shopkeeping class, a large proportion under thirty years of age. 
There is this advantage from a middle-class movement in London, 
that it always carries with it the workingmen, who are all inter- 
mingled by their occupation with the class above them more 
completely than in any other large town. I observe what you 
say about the spirit of our Manchester Tories. The baseness of 
that party exceeds anything since the time of the old Egyptian 
worshippers of Bulls • and Beetles. But depend upon it, the 
hostility to the League is confined pretty much to the leaders, 
and you will see when a general election turns upon/ the Corn 
Laws (and we must have a dissolution upon the question before 
settling it), that the rank and file of the party, the shopkeepers 
and owners of small cottage property, will either desert the Tory 
masters, or fold their -arms and refuse to go into action at their 
bidding. But our salvation will come from the rural districts. 
The farmers are already half alienated from the landlords, and the 
schism will widen every rent-day. Amidst the deluge of letters 
that I have received since the Peel blunder, are lots of commu- 
nications from farmers. My declaration that I am a farmer's son, 
seems to have told as I expected, and it is a point of too much 



Mt. 39.] RURAL CAMPAIGN. 181 

importance not to be made the most of, even at the risk of being 
egotistical." 2 

" The meeting at Taunton was a bona-fide farmers' gathering 
from all parts of the division of Somerset, and there was but one 
opinion in the town amongst all parties who attended the market, 
that the game of the ' political landlords ' is all up. I find our 
case upon agricultural grounds far stronger and easier than in 
relation to the trading interests. Now, depend upon it, it will be 
just as we have often predicted, the agricultural districts of the 
south will carry our question. They are as a community in 
every respect, whether as regards intelligence, morality, politics, 
or public spirit, superior to the folks that surround you in Lan- 
cashire. I intend to hold county meetings every Saturday after 
Easter." 2 

The year 1843 was famous for a great agitation in each of the 
three kingdoms. O'Connell was rousing Ireland by the cry of 
Repeal. Scotland was kindled to one of its most passionate 
movements of enthusiasm by the outgoing of Chalmers and his 
brethren from the Establishment. In England the League against 
the Corn Law was rapidly growing in flood and volume. If ever 
the natural history of agitations is taken in hand, it will be in- 
structive to compare the different methods of these three move- 
ments, two of which succeeded, while the third failed. 

Cobden never disdained large popular meetings, to be counted 
by thousands. These gatherings of great multitudes were useful, 
not merely because they were likely to stir a certain interest more 
or less durable in those who attended them, but also because they 
impressed the Protectionist party with the force and numbers 
that were being arrayed against them. But he did not overrate 
either their significance or their value. Chalmers, in his great 
work of reorganizing the broken Church, always expressed strong 
distaste for large meetings, compared with small conferences 
attended by none but those who could be persuaded to do what 
he commended. He wanted, he used to say, not the excitement 
of emotion, but the sturdiness and endurance of good working- 
principles. It was the same kind of feeling which made Cobden 
always look back with peculiar satisfaction to his share in the 
education of the farmers in sound economic principles by dialecti- 
cal disputes from wagons, and close debate -over the beef and ale 
at market ordinaries. 

The League had shown the evil effects of the Corn Law upon 
operatives, shopkeepers, manufacturers, and merchants. They 
now turned to another quarter, and set to work to prove that the 

1 To F. Cobden, March 11, 1843. 2 To F. Cobden, April 10, 1S43. 



182 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

same law inflicted still greater injuries upon the tenant farmers 
and the laborers. The towns were already convinced, and the 
time was a good one for an invasion of the agricultural districts. 
The farmers were getting low prices. They were disgusted at 
the concessions to Free Trade which had been made in the 
budget, especially in the article of meat. They suspected their 
parliamentary friends of trickery, and a selfish deference to a 
plausible Minister. 

The meeting's in the counties were highly successful for their 
immediate purpose, and they are full of interest to look back 
upon. They are, perhaps, the most striking and original feature 
in the whole agitation. There was true political courage and pro- 
found faith, in the idea of awakening the most torpid portion of 
the community, not by any appeal to passion, but by hard argu- 
mentative debate. It was generally accepted that the contro- 
versy was one to be settled by arguments and not by force. 
Sir George Lewis said that if the proposal had been to annihi- 
late rents instead of reducing them, the Protectionists would as 
certainly have gone from words to blows, as the American 
slaveholders afterwards did when their peculiar institution was 
touched. One reason why the shock, when it came, was accepted 
without disorder, was that the League had succeeded in thor- 
oughly loosening, if not in overthrowing, the prejudices of those 
who expected to be immediately ruined by the change. The dis- 
cussion was usually conducted in a fair and manly spirit on both 
sides. The speakers for the League told their hearers that they 
did not wish to say anything personally offensive to anybody ; 
that they were simply anxious that what was true on the subject 
of protection should be discovered ; and that they gave the gentle- 
men in the opposition wagon credit for anxiety to do the same 
thing. As a rule, things were conducted with order and good 
temper. Land agents, valuers, and auctioneers were angrier dis- 
putants than either farmers or squires. At Dorchester there was 
an attempt to storm the hustings, but the Leaguers were prepared, 
and a stout party of their friends, aided by the laborers, repulsed 
the attack. At Canterbury, where the cause of protection was 
advocated oddly enough by Mr. G. P. R James, the renowned 
novelist, one or two corn-factors insulted Cobden and Mr. Bright, 
and there was some uplifting of sticks. There were occasional 
threats of violence, tossing in a blanket, and so forth, beforehand. 
But when the time came, all passed off peaceably. 1 

Farmers who were afraid of attending meetings in their own 
immediate district, used to travel thirty or forty miles to places 

1 When a visit from Mr. Bright was announced at Alnwick, the Newcastle 
Journal had a most brutal paragraph to the effect that some stalwart yeoman 
should take the matter into his hands. 



Mi. 39.] RURAL CAMPAIGN. 183 

where they could listen to the speakers without being known. 
Enemies came to the meetings, and began to take notes in a very 
confident spirit, but as the arguments became too strong for them, 
the pencil was laid aside, and the paper was torn up. At Nor- 
wich, the leading yeoman of the county put a number of ques- 
tions to Cobden, which were so neatly and conclusively answered, 
that the farmers who were listening to the controversy burst out 
into loud applause. The terse sentences in which Cobden con- 
densed his matter carried conviction home. Though it was im- 
possible for him to invent new arguments or discover unfamiliar 
facts every day, yet even those who were best acquainted with 
the facts and the arguments, were struck at every meeting by his 
power of selecting and concentrating the important points, with a 
conversational strength that brought every word within the easy 
comprehension of the most careless listener. Antagonists were 
sometimes astute, but were often stupid even to impenetrability. 
In one place, a clergyman firmly contended that scarcity had 
nothing to do with dearness. In that case, Mr. Bright replied, 
he need not be afraid of repeal, for of course on his principles 
abundance could not produce cheapness. 

At Hertford the Shire Hall was so crowded, that the meeting 
was held in the open air. The multitude was mainly composed 
of farmers, and on the skirts of the multitude some of the most 
important squires in the county sat on horseback to hear the dis- 
cussion. Cobden spoke for two hours, and obtained a sympa- 
thetic hearing by his announcement that he was the son of a 
Sussex farmer, that he had kept his father's sheep, and had seen 
the misery of a rent-day. It was at this meeting at Hertford 
that he first met Mr. Lattimore, the well-known farmer of Wheat- 
hampstead, to whom he was in the subsequent course of the 
movement greatly indebted for agricultural facts bearing on Free 
Trade. 1 

At Aylesbury, which was the stronghold of the Duke of Buck- 
ingham, after his address, Cobden was confronted by a long list 
of questions from an anonymous inquirer. Would not Free Trade 
lower the price of corn and the means of employing labor, from 
thirty to fifty per" cent ? Did the members of the League think 
the existing price of the quartern loaf, which was then fivepence, 

1 " I have not forgotten the trouble you took to instruct me in the agricultural 
view of the question ; how you visited me in London for that purpose. I recollect 
after making my speech in the House on the agricultural view of the Free Trade 
question — the most successful speech I ever made — that several county members 
asked me where my land lay, thinking I must be an experienced proprietor and 
farmer. I told them I did not own an acre, but that I owed my knowledge to the 
best farmer of my acquaintance, which I have always considered you to be." — 
Cobden to R. Lattimore, April 20, 1864. The speech referred to as the most suc- 
cessful he ever made, I presume to be that of March 13, 1845, No. xv. in the 
collected speeches. 



184 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

too high for either producer or consumer ? Cobclen answered 
them with his usual dexterity, and wound up with the crucial 
question on his own part; namely, in what way farmers and 
farm-laborers had profited by the Corn Laws since 1815. A 
resolution approving of the principles of Free Trade was then put 
and carried with a few dissentients — so few, that Lord Nugent, 
who was in the chair, said they were about as many as would 
have held up their hands in favor of Free Trade five and twenty 
years before. At Uxbridge, the farmers who usually attended the 
corn-market, invited Cobden to explain his views to them. The 
arrangements for the meeting were left entirely in their own 
hands. The tickets of admission were issued by the farmers, and 
disposed of by them ; the county was ransacked for supporters of 
monopoly, and the discomfiture of the prophet of the League was 
confidently predicted. The audience was more exclusively com- 
posed of farmers than any that had yet been held. When the 
time came, four gentlemen, one after another, advocated the cause 
of monopoly as ably as they could, and the discussion between 
them on the one hand, and Cobclen and Joseph Hume on the 
other, lasted for four hours and a half. In the end, the arguments 
of the Free Traders were felt to be so absolutely unanswerable, 
that a resolution in favor of total and immediate repeal was car- 
ried by five to one. The circumstances were much the same, and 
the result was the same at Lincoln, where Cobden was accom- 
panied by Mr. Bright. At Taunton, the church bells were rung, 
flags with free-trade mottoes were hung from the windows, and a 
brass band insisted on accompanying the deputation from the 
railway to the place of meeting. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Mr. 
Moore were listened to with unwearied attention for more than 
four hours. The farmers listened at first with doubt and sus- 
picion. Gradually their faces cleared, conviction began to warm 
them, and at last such an impression had been made, that eight 
hundred farmers out of a meeting of twelve hundred persons, 
voted in favor of total and immediate repeal. 

In Bedford Cobden had not a single friend or acquaintance. 
He had simply announced as extensively as he could by placards, 
that he meant to visit the town on a given day. The farmers had 
been canvassed far and wide to attend to put clown the represent- 
atives from the Anti-Corn-Law League. The Assembly Booms 
could not hold half the persons who had come together, and they 
adjourned to a large field outside the town. Three wagons were 
provided to serve as hustings, but the monopolist party rudely 
seized them, and Cobden had to wait while a fourth wagon was 
procured. Lord Charles Bussell presided, and the discussion be- 
gan. The proceedings went on from three o'clock in the afternoon 
until nine o'clock in the evening, in spite of heavy showers of 



JIt.89.] RURAL CAMPAIGN. 185 

rain. At first Cobden was listened to with some impatience, but 
as he warmed to his subject, and began to deliver telling strokes 
of illustration and argument, the impression gradually spread that 
he was right. The chairman was unwillingly obliged to declare 
that an amendment in favor of Free Trade was carried by a large 
majority. 

" We fought a hard battle at Bedford," Cobden writes to his 
brother, " against brutish squires and bull-frogs, but carried it two 
to one, contrary to the expectations of every man in the county. 
Lord Charles Eussell is the man who opposed even his brother 
John's fixed duty, declaring at the time that it was to throw two 
millions of acres out of cultivation. After Bedford, we can win 
anywhere ; and it is giving great moral power to my movements 
in the rural districts to be always successful. The aristocracy are 
becoming savage and alarmed at the war going on in their own 
camp." l 

" On Saturday next," he continues, " I shall be at Eye, where 
there will be a grand muster from all the eastern part of our 
county and from parts of Kent. These county meetings are be- 
coming provokingiy interesting and attractive, so far as the land- 
lords are affected. They begin to feel the necessity of showing 
fight, and yet when they do come out to meet me, they are sure 
to be beaten on their own dunghill. The question of protection 
is now an open one at all the market tables in the counties where 
I have been, and the discussion of the question cannot fail to 
have the right issue." 2 

This discussion sometimes broke down for lack of representa- 
tives of the opposite cause : — 

" Our meeting at Eye was a very tame affair for want of any 
open spirit of opposition. The audience was almost as quiet as a 
flock of their own Southdowns. I fear the squires and parsons 
will give up the old game of opposition, and try to keep the 
farmers away. However, we have sown the seeds in the south of 
England which nothing will eradicate. Wherever I go, I make 
the Corn question an open question at all the market tables. And 
everywhere are strong-headed men who take up our cause. At 
Winchester I found many intelligent farmers. Mr. M., who 
moved the Free Trade resolution, is, with his brother, the largest 
occupier in the county. A very quiet man, highly respected : his 
very name a passport. A Mr. E. was at the meeting, who rents 
3000 acres. After hearing our statements, he remarked, ' These 
facts and arguments are quite unanswerable. Every word is 
true.' " 3 
~At Penenden Heath (June 29), three thousand of the men of 

1 To F. W. Cobden,. London, June 5, 1843. 2 Tunbridge Wells, June 7, 1843. 
8 To F. W. Cobden, London, July 20, 1843. 



186 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

Kent assembled to hear a close argumentative debate between 
Cobden and a local landowner. Two days later, there was an 
open-air meeting at Guildford, where Cobden stated his case, tided 
over interruptions, and met objections from all comers for several 
hours. We need not further prolong the history of this summer's 
campaign. Hereford, Lewes, Croydon, Bristol, Salisbury, 1 Can- 
terbury, and Beading, were all visited before the end of the ses- 
sion by Cobden and Mr. Bright, or some other coadjutor. In all 
of them, amid great variety of illustrations, and with a constantly 
increasing stock of facts, he pinned his opponents to the point, 
How, when, or where, have farmers and farm laborers benefited 
by the Corn Law ? His greatest victory was at Colchester, the 
chief town of a county which kept its parliamentary representa- 
tion unsullied by a single Liberal. The whole district had been 
astir with angry expectation for many clays ; the drum ecclesias- 
tic had been vigorously beaten all over the county ; Sir John Tyr- 
rell, at this time one of the doughtiest followers of Peel, promised 
or threatened to attend ; passions waxed very high ; special con- 
stables were sworn in ; and the violent and the timid alike de- 
clared that the agitators would find themselves in no small bodily 
peril. Hustings were erected in a large field, and when the day 
came, several thousands of people assembled from all parts of the 
county. At the appointed hour Cobden and Charles Villiers were 
at their posts, and they were soon followed by Sir John Tyrrell 
and Mr. Ferrand. Then the tournament began. The battle raged 
for six hours, and the League champion achieved a striking vic- 
tory. The amendment to his resolution was put to utter rout, 
and when night fell, Sir John Tyrrell was found to have silently 
vanished. At one point in the controversy he had irrelevantly 
defied Cobden to do further battle with him at Chelmsford. Cob- 
den instantly took up the glove, and on the appointed day to 
Chelmsford he went. Sir John, however, had already had enough 
of an unequal match, and Cobden carried on the controversy in 
the usual way and with his usual success. 

" Will these repeated discomfitures," cried the Morning Post, 
" induce the landowners of England to open their eyes to the dan- 
gers that beset them ? What may be the causes of Mr. Cobden's 
success ? The primary cause is assuredly that which conduces to 
the success of Sir Bobert Peel. Why, indeed, if parliamentary 
landowners deem it honest and wise to support the author of the 

1 It was at Salisbury, on a second visit later in the year, that Cobden was re- 
ported to have pointed to the cathedral and said : " He thought the best thing that 
coidd happen would be to see that huge monster turned into a good factory." Even 
his foes admitted that this story was a gross fabrication, but it was often revived 
against him in the days of the Crimean War. Probably some one said that this was 
what he was capable of saying, and then by well-known mythopceic processes, it 
was believed that he actually had said it. 



JDt.39.] rural campaign. 187 

Tariff and the new Corn Law, should not the tenant farmers of Eng- 
land support Sir Eobert Peel's principles when enunciated by Mr. 
Cobden ? With what pretensions to consistency could Sir John 
Tyrrell oppose Mr. Cobden on the hustings at Colchester, after 
having supported all the Free Trade measures that had made the 
session of 1842 infamous in the annals of our legislation ? . . . . 
Mr. Cobden's speech is by no means unanswerable. But Sir John 
Tyrrell assuredly made no attempt to answer it. He uttered some 
things not devoid of shrewdness, but they bore as slight reference 
to the fallacies on which Mr. Cobden traded, as they did to the 
false doctrines of the Koran. It is not, we fear, by such men as 
the present race of the parliamentary landowners that the deadly 
progress of the League is to be arrested." 

Mr. Bright once said at a public meeting, 1 that people had 
talked much more than was pleasant to him about his friend 
Cobden and himself, and he would tell them that in the Council 
were many whose names were never before the public, and yet 
who deserved the highest praise. He was sorry that it should for a 
moment be supposed, that they who were more prominently before 
the public, and who were but two or three, should be considered 
the most praiseworthy. Nor was he singular. Cobden took 
every opportunity quietly and modestly of saying the same thing. 
The applause of multitudes never inflated him into a demagogue, 
as it was truly observed, any more than the atmosphere of Par- 
liament and of London society ever depressed him into conven- 
tionality. 2 I cannot find a trace or a word in the most private 
correspondence, betraying on the part of any prominent actor in 
the League a symptom of petty or ignoble egotism. They were 
too much in earnest. Never on a scene where the temptations 
to vanity were so many, was vanity so entirely absent. 

Cobden's incessant activity, his dialectical skill, the scandal of 
the recent scene in the House, and perhaps the fact that he was a 
member of the House, all contributed to make his position at this 
time conspicuous and unique, but his simplicity of spirit filled 
men with an affection and love for him, which made his success 
their own. As a, speaker, nobody knew better than he did the 
more stately genius of his chief friend and ally. He once told 
an audience at Rochdale that at this time, for reasons which 
they would be at no loss to guess, he always stipulated that Mr. 
Bright should let him speak first. From Winchester Mr. Bright 
wrote to him, that they had promised faithfully that he should 

1 October, 1843. 

2 "Members were subject to great temptations in London, and those who had 
not been behind the scenes little knew the perils and dangers they had to go 
through. It was very difficult for a man, however clothed in the panoply of principle, 
to go through the ordeal of a London season, without finding his coat of mail perfo- 
rated from one quarter or another." — Cobden, at Ashton-under-Lyne, January, 1843. 



188 LIFE OP COBDEN. [1843. 

attend the meeting, and that if the train failed to bring him, they 
should run the country. If Cobden's name was mentioned at a 
meeting, the audience would rise and give three times three for 
the member for Stockport, the friend of the people. At Manches- 
ter, an immense gathering assembled to present an address to him, 
formally describing him as the leader of the movement ; and the 
cheers grew more, enthusiastic when a letter from Lord Ducie was 
read, declaring that there was no man alive to whom the country 
was more indebted than to Richard Cobden. In the same way 
the men on the other side singled him out for special vitupera- 
tion : and people who had never seen a print-works in their lives 
excited agricultural audiences by asserting that Cobden was mak- 
ing enormous wealth at the expense of the strength, the happi- 
ness, the limbs, and the very lives of little children. 

As he said afterwards, Cobden lived at this time in public 
meetings. Along with the county meetings, there was for some 
time a weekly gathering at the Commercial Rooms in Thread- 
needle Street, where the League, speakers reiterated their argu- 
ments to crowded audiences of merchants and bankers. There 
were the enthusiastic assemblies at Drury Lane and afterwards at 
Covent Garden, in which the interest of the London public was 
so great that the report of them doubled and trebled the ordinary 
sale of the newspapers on the following morning. Besides all 
this, Cobden attended to everything that in any way concerned 
his own great subject in the House of Commons. There his posi- 
tion by this time had become really formidable to the Minister. 
His complete knowledge of every aspect of the case, his tenacity, 
his skill in debate, and the immense influence which it was per- 
ceived that he was acquiring out of doors, had brought him to a 
front place ; and the man who in February had been spoken of 
as politically ruined, was by August exercising a pressure on the 
mind of Sir Robert Peel, as strong on the one side, as the pres- 
sure of a whole group of insurgent dukes on the other. 

The serious subjects of discussion in Parliament were all related 
to the social condition of the people, and men noticed how at 
one point or another they all touched the question of Free Trade. 
The Government brought in their famous measure of national 
education, as we shall afterwards see. The League, though not 
formally opposed to the measure, pointed out the folly of first by 
the Corn Law taxing the people into poverty, and then taxing the 
impoverished to pay for the instruction of the starving. Charles 
Buller pressed his scheme of state-aided emigration. 1 The League 

1 In his speech Buller reproached Cohden with condescending to practise on the 
ignorance of his audience by resort to stale theatrical clap-trap, which must have 
been suggested to him by the genius of Drury Lane — where he was speaking. As 
this particular passage has.been much applauded by Cobden's admirers, both abroad 



Jfc.89.] RURAL CAMPAIGN. 189 

retorted that if the Corn Law were repealed, there would be no 
need for emigration. A Free Trader moved for a committee to 
inquire into the burdens and exemptions peculiar to the landed 
interest. A county member proposed an amendment that the 
House should direct its attention to Associations which, in mat- 
ters affecting agriculture and commerce, pretended to influence 
the Legislature, and which by their combination and proceedings 
were dangerous to the public peace and inconsistent with the 
spirit of the constitution. Cobden retaliated with a vigorous ac- 
count of the state of the laborers on the county member's own 
estates, and by the telling fact that in that very county of Dorset 
one out of every seven of the population was a pauper. On the 
occasion of Mr. Villiers's annual motion for a committee to con- 
sider the duties on foreign corn with a view to their immediate 
abolition, Cobden made one of the most spirited of his speeches 
on a subject on which it appeared that everything had been said. 1 
It was circulated by hundreds of thousands of copies, and pro- 
duced a great effect upon opinion. The Government introduced 
a bill for the repeal of the restrictions on the export of machin- 
ery. Cobden supported the removal of this last prohibition on 
the Statute-book. Later in the Session, he made a vigorous at- 
tack on the Sugar-duties, and the policy of giving a preference 
to the produce of the British colonies, when the colonies contrib- 
uted nothing to the revenue, and burdened us with civil and 
military expenses. The whole colonial trade amounted only to 
10,000,000/. a year, and to maintain this, 5,000,000/. were spent 
by the mother country. The West Indian sugar-grower was the 
natural ally of the British corn-grower, 2 and with equal zeal the 

and at home, I venture to reproduce it : "Did the men who signed that memorial 
ever go down to St. Catherine's Dock, and see an emigration ship about to start on 
its voyage ? Had they seen these poor emigrants sitting till the moment of de- 
parture on the stones of the quay, as if they would cling to the last to the land of 
their birth ? They need not inquire what were their feelings ; they would read 
their hearts in their faces. Had they ever seen them taking leave of their friends ? 
He had watched such scenes over and over again. He had seen a venerable woman 
taking leave of her grandchildren, and he had seen a struggle between the mother 
and the grandmother to retain possession of a child. As these emigrant-vessels de- 
parted from the Mersey to the United States, the eyes of all on deck were directed 
hack to the port whence they had started, and the last objects which met their gaze, 
as their native land receded from their view, were the tall bonding-houses of Liv- 
erpool, where under the lock — ■ he was going to say the Queen's lock, but under 
the lock of the aristocracy — were shut up some hundreds of thousands of barrels 
of the finest flour of America — the only object that these unhappy wanderers 
were going in quest of." His friends, he was told, did not know he had so much 
sentiment and eloquence in him. 

1 N"o. iv. in the collected speeches. 

2 The following extract from one of Cobden's speeches at Covent Garden states 
his argument, and is a characteristic illustration of his style : — 

" Now, what is the pretence for monopoly in sugar ? They cannot say that it 
benefits the revenue ; neither is it intended to benefit the farmer in England, or 
the negro in the West Indies. What, then, is the pretence set up ? Why, that we 



190 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1843. 

Protectionist organs took up both causes against Cobden's pene- 
trating attacks. These organs persisted in reproaching their party 
in the two Houses with weakness in defence of the sacred cause. 
There was disunion and want of confidence throughout the party. 
Mr. Gladstone eloquently expounded the principles of Free Trade, 
though it was true that he gave the adroitest reasons for not ap- 
plying them. Mr. Cobden, they said, was a man of great energy, 
shrewdness, and strength of will, but the true cause of his suc- 
cesses in debate was the want of spirit in those who should have 
been his active adversaries. Was it not melancholy and even in- 
sufferable to witness " the landholders of England, the representa- 
tives of the blood of the Norman chivalry, shrinking under the 
blows aimed at them by a Manchester money-grubber " ? 

Unhappily there was nobody in Manchester to whom this evil 
designation was less applicable. Only a week before the close 
of the session, Cobden wrote to his brother : — 

" Your account is surely enough a bad turn up. There must 
be something radically fallacious in our mode of calculating cost 
or fixing prices. Not that I expected very much this year, be- 
cause our last autumn must have been a serious loss, and the 
spring business squeezed into too small a space of time to do 
great things in. We must have a rigid overhauling of expenses, 
and see if they can be reduced ; and if not, we must at all events 
fix our prices to cover all charges. I rather suspect we made a 
blunder in fixing them too low last spring. But with our present 

must not buy. slave-grown sugar ! I believe that the ambassador from the Brazils 
is here at present, and I think I can imagine an interview between him and the 
President of the Board of Trade. He delivers his credentials ; he has come to 
arrange a treaty of commerce. I think I see the President of the Board of Trade 
calling up a solemn, earnest, pious expression, and saying, ' You are from the 
Brazils — we shall be happy to trade with you, but we cannot conscientiously 
receive slave-grown produce ! ' His Excellency is a good man of business ; so he 
says, ' Well, then, we will see if we can trade together in some other way. What 
have you to sell us ? ' ' Why,' returns the President of the Board of Trade, ' cotton 
goods ; in these articles we are the largest exporters in the world ! ' ' Indeed ! ' 
exclaims his Excellency ; ' cotton, did you say ? Where is cotton brought from ? ' 
'Why,' replies the Minister, 'hem — chiefly from the United States,' and at once 
the question will be, ' Pray, is it free-grown cotton or slave-grown cotton ? ' Now, 
I leave you to imagine the answer, and I leave you also to picture the countenance 
of the President of the Board of Trade. . . . Now, have any of you had your 
humanity entrapped and your sympathies bamboozled by these appeals against 
slave-grown produce ? Do 3'ou know how the law stands. with regard to the sugar 
trade at present ? We send our manufactures to Brazil as it is ; we bring back 
Brazilian sugar ; that sugar is refined in this country — refined in bonding ware- 
houses, that is, warehouses where English people are not allowed to get at it — and 
it is then sent abroad by our merchants, by those very men who are now preaching 
against the consumption of slave-grown sugar. Ay, those very men and their con- 
nections who are loudest in their appeals against slave-grown sugar, have bonding 
warehouses in Liverpool and London, and send this sugar to Russia, to China, to 
Turkey, to Poland, to Egypt ; in short, to any country under the sun — to coun- 
tries, too, having a population of 500,000,000; and yet these men will not allow 
you to have slave-grown sugar here." 



jEt.39.] rural campaign. 191 

reputation, we must not give our goods away. The truth is, a 
great portion of our Manchester trade has always been done at no 
profit or at a loss. Still I do not fall into your despair. We 
have the chance of righting ourselves yet. For after all, our 
great losses have always arisen from fluctuations in the value 
of the stock, and there is no risk in that way for some years to 
come. As to other matters hanging over us, they can only be 
righted by a general revival of the district, and we shall get Free 
Trade from the necessities of the Exchequer." 1 

The session came to an end ; it does not appear, however, that 
he suffered himself to be long detained from the great work by 
private affairs. He went for two or three weeks with his family 
to the south of England for a breath of. calm. By the middle of 
September, he and Mr. Bright were again at work at Oxford, Lan- 
caster, and elsewhere. They were ubiquitous ; to-day at Man- 
chester, to-morrow at Lincoln, this week at Salisbury, the next in 
Haddingtonshire. A day without a meeting was said to be as 
deplorable to them, as the merciful emperor's day without a good 
deed. The following extracts from letters to his wife and his 
brother, from October to January (1844), will serve to show how 
Cobden passed the autumn and winter. 

" I have been incessantly occupied travelling or talking since I 
saw you, having made the journey across Northumberland, Cum- 
berland, and Haddingtonshire twice. "We go to-morrow to Ken- 
dal to give Warburton a lift, and I shall be home on Tuesday. I 
have seen much to gratify and instruct me. We spent a couple 
of days with Hope, and his neighbors the East Lothian farmers. 
They are a century before our Hants and Sussex chawbacons. In 
fact, they are, by comparison, educated gentlemen and practical 
philosophers, and their workpeople are more like Sharp and 
Eoberts's skilled mechanics than our round-frocked peasantry. 
Our farmers cannot be brought to the Scotch standard by Lord 
Ducie or a hundred Lord Ducies. The men are wanting. We 
have better soil and climate, and the live and dead stock may be 
easily brought to match them, but the two-legged animals will 
not do in the present generation. We have seen much to encour- 
age us. I have no doubt the Haddingtonshire farmers will com- 
mence an agitation against the Corn Laws, which will be a 
nucleus for independent action amongst their class elsewhere. 
The Northumberland farmers especially in the north are nearly 
upon a par with them, and they are just as likely to aid us. 
Altogether I am full of hope from the experience- of the last 
week. I feel no doubt that we shall, before Parliament meets, 
get a declaration signed by 1000 farmers in all parts of the king- 

_ l To F. W. Cobden, London, Aug. 17, 1843. 



192 LIFE OF COBDEN. 

clom, declaring the Corn Law to have been a cheat upon the 
tenantry." 1 

"Aberdeen, Jan. 14, 1844. — Here we are happily at the far 
end of our pilgrimage, and on Tuesday morning we hope to turn 
our faces homeward. It has been a hard week's work. After 
finishing our labors at Perth, I expected to have had a quiet day 
yesterday. We started in the morning by the coach for this 
place, but in passing through Forfar we found all the inhabitants 
at their doors or in the streets. They had heard of our intended 
passage through their town, and a large crowd was assembled at 
the inn where the coach stopped, which gave us three cheers; 
and nothing would do but we must stop to give them an address. 
We consented, and immediately the temperance band struck up, 
and paraded through the town, and the parish church bells were 
set a ringing, in fact the whole town was set in a commotion. 
We spoke to about two thousand persons in the parish church, 
which, notwithstanding that it was Saturday evening, was granted 
to us. It was the first time we ever addressed an Anti-Corn-Law 
audience in a parish church. Forfar is a poor little borough with 
a great many weavers of coarse linens, and their enthusiasm is 
nearly all we can expect from them. A subscription of about a 
hundred and fifty pounds will, however, be raised. We expect 
better things in the way of money here. Aberdeen is a fine 
large town with several extensive manufactories, and a good ship- 
ping port. But strange to say, it is almost the only place in 
Scotland where the capitalists seem to have taken no part in the 
Free-trade movement. But I hope we shall be able to stir them 
up to-morrow. We shall depart from this on Tuesday morning 
at half-past five for the south, stopping at Montrose for a midday 
meeting, and then proceeding on to Dundee for a great meeting 
in the evening. Thus you see we are working double tides, 
travelling miles by coach and holding two meetings a day. I 
hope we shall last it out for another week. We are to have two 
large meetings here to-morrow. The deputation separated into 
two parties at Edinburgh. Moore and I came north, and Bright 
and Colonel Thompson went to the west of Scotland, taking 
Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Greenock, and we shall all meet again 
at Newcastle on Saturday next. We find a great change in the 
temperature in these northern regions. There is a hard frost, and 
the highlands are covered with snow. I have thus far escaped a 
cold, and find my health good ; in fact, notwithstanding my hard 
work, I have been better this winter than ever, having escaped 
my usual fit of inflammation in my eyes. I think there is a 
special Providence watching over the Leaguers." 

To F. W. Cobdcn, Carlisle, Oct. 27, 1843. 



JSt.40.] rural campaign. 193 

" Dundee, Jan. 17, 1844. — I am nearly overdone with work, 
two meetings at Aberdeen on Monday, up at four on Tuesday, 
travelled thirty-five miles, held a meeting at Montrose, and then 
thirty-five miles more to Dundee, for a meeting the same evening. 
To-morrow we go to Cupar Fife, next day, Leith, the day follow- 
ing, Jedburgh." 

" Newcastle-on-Tyne, Jan. 22. — I got here last night from Jed- 
burgh, where we had the most extraordinary meeting of all. The 
streets were blocked up with country people as we entered the 
place, some of whom had come over the hills for twenty miles. 
It is the Duke of Buccleuch's country, but he would be puzzled 
to find followers on his own lands to fight his battles as of old. 
To-night we meet here, to-morrow at Sunderland, the day after at 
Sheffield, where you will please address me to-morrow, on Thurs- 
day we shall be at York, and on Friday at Hull, and in Man- 
chester on Saturday evening." 1 

"Hull, Jan. 26, 1844. — I shall leave this place to-morrow by 
the train at half-past ten, and expect to reach Manchester by 
about five o'clock. I am, I assure you, heartily glad of the pros-, 
pect of only two days' relaxation after the terrible fagging I have 
had for the last three weeks. To-day we have two meetings in 
Hull. I am in the Court House with a thousand people before 
me, and Bright is stirring up the lieges with famous effect. He 
is reminding the Hull people of the conduct of their ancient 
representative, Andrew Marvell, and talking of their being un- 
worthy of the graves of their ancestors over which they walk. 
We shall have another meeting this evening." 

There was one drawback to the Scotch. Before they crossed 
the border, the Leaguers had held meetings in Leicester, Notting- 
ham, Sheffield, Leeds, where they got a couple of thousand pounds 
before they left the room. At a Scotch meeting, Cobclen tells 
Mrs. Cobden, " we found that to name money was like reading 
the Riot Act, for dispersing them. They care too much for 
speeches by mere politicians and Whig aristocrats." But the 
results of the campaign were in the highest degree valuable. The 
deputation strengthened the faith in all the places that they 
visited, revived interest and conviction, and Drought back to 
Manchester a substantial addition to the funds of their asso- 
ciation. 

The following letter to Mr. George Wilson belongs to this date, 
and illxistrates a point on which Cobden and his friends were 
always most solicitous. It is written from Durham, for which Mr. 
Bright had been returned as member in the previous July : — 

"You will remember that when Bright won this place, the 

1 To F. W. Cobden, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Jan. 22, 1844. 
13 



194 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1844. 

Whigs (that is, the Chronicle) tried to make it a Whig triumph, 
which Bright spoilt by his declaration at the Crown and Anchor, 
' that it was not a party victory.' Now your best plan at Covent 
Garden on Thursday will be to prevent the Whigs playing us off 
against the Tories, by declaring that the City election was a trial 
of strength not between the League and the Ministry, or between 
the League and the Tory party, but between Free Trade and 
Monopoly. There is no way so certain of bringing the Whigs to 
our ranks, as by showing them that they will not be allowed to 
make a sham fight with the Tories at our expense. Depend on it 
the Whigs are now plotting how they can use us and throw us 
aside. The more we show our honesty in refusing to be made 
the tools of a party, the more shall we have the confidence of the 
moderate and honest Tories. You have now an opportunity of 
putting us right with both parties, and I hope you will give the 
right tone to the speaking at Covent Garden." 1 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THE SESSION OF 1844 — FACTORY LEGISLATION — THE 
CONSTITUENCIES. 

The statistics of agitation sometimes raise a smile. The nice 
measurement of argumentative importunity in terms of weight 
and bulk, seems incongruous in connection with anything so com- 
plex, so volatile, so invisibly rooted as opinion. We all know 
how at each annual meeting the listeners receive these figures of 
tracts, pamphlets, and leaflets with the same kind of enthusiasm 
with which a farmer surveys his mountains of quickening manure. 
At Manchester, in the autumn of 1843, the report was stupendous. 
Five hundred persons had been employed in distributing tracts 
from house to house. Five millions of such tracts had been 
delivered to parliamentary electors in England and Scotland ; and 
the total distributed to non-electors and others had been upwards 
of nine millions. The weight of papers thus circulated was no 
less than one hundred tons. One hundred and forty towns had 
been visited, and there had been five and twenty meetings in the 
agricultural districts. It was resolved that the new campaign 
should be conducted with redoubled vigor. In October (1843), 
after a vehement contest, in which the Monopolist candidate was 

i To George Wilson, Durham, October 24, 1843. 



Mr. 40."] THE SESSION OF 1844. 195 

backed by all the influence of the Government, a Free Trader was 
returned for the city, and this great victory gave new heart to the 
movement throughout the country. Fifty thousand pounds had 
been expended in the current year. A fund of a hundred thou- 
sand pounds was demanded for the year to come ; and before the 
end of 1844 nearly ninety thousand pounds of that sum had 
actually been raised. Of this amount, nearly fourteen thousand 
pounds were subscribed at a single meeting in Manchester. 
Cobden had, at that time at any rate, supreme faith in the potency 
of this vast propagandism. He still believed that if you brought 
truth to people's doors, they must embrace it. Projects for the 
establishment of newspapers for the spread of the views of his 
school, always interested him keenly. The following letter to 
Mr. Bright describes the beginnings of one of the most excellent 
journals of the time : — 

" I wish I could have a little talk with you and Wilson about 
the removal of the Circular to London. James Wilson 1 has a 
plan for starting a weekly Free- Trader by himself and his friends, 
to be superintended by himself. But he does not intend this 
unless he can have the support of the League, or at least its 
acquiescence. He has a notion that a paper would do more good 
if it were not the organ of the League, but merely their indepen- 
dent supporter. But then what is the League to do for an organ ? 
If we start another weekly paper, it would clash with his. Vil- 
liers seems to have been rather taken with James Wilson's plan, 
and it would undoubtedly be desirable to have Wilson's pen at 
work. It is quite clear that the League must have its organ. 
The question for us to decide is what kind of paper shall we have ? 
Is it to be simply a removal of the Anti-Bread- Tax Circular to 
London with the change of the title to the League Circular and 
to be still confined exclusively to the one object and movement of 
the League; or must we enlarge to a sixpenny paper, and whilst 
keeping corn prominent, attack collaterally sugar, and coffee ? If 
we stick to the Circular in its present character, then another 
Free-trade paper might be started ; if we adopted the enlarged 
paper, then it would be folly in James Wilson to undertake 
another, and he would not attempt it." 2 

In the long-run Mr. Wilson started his own newspaper, which 
he called the Economist. The Circular was suppressed, and the 
League was published in its stead, conveying, as Cobden said, 
every syllable of their speeches to twenty thousand people in all 
the parishes of the kingdom. Before describing a more important 

1 Afterwards Secretary to the Treasury, and Financial Member of the Council of 
India. A most interesting account of Mr. Wilson is to bcfound in the Literary 
Studies of the late Walter Bagehot (vol. i. pp. 367-406). 

2 To Mr. Bright, June 21, 1843. 



196 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1844. 

move in the Manchester tactics, I have to say something of 
Cobden's action in Parliament, where a very momentous subject 
presently engaged attention. 

In the session of 1844 the Corn Laws fell into the background. 
Mr. Cardwell, in seconding the motion on the Address, made a 
marked impression by a collection of evidence that trade was 
reviving. The revival of trade weakened the strongest argument 
of the agitators, because it diminished the practical urgency of 
their question. Parliament is always glad of an excuse for leav- 
ing a question alone, and the slightest improvement in the markets 
was welcomed as a reason for allowing the Corn Law to slumber. 
The Prime Minister took advantage of such a state of things to 
quell the sullen suspicion of the agricultural party, by emphatic 
declarations that the Government had never contemplated, and 
did not then contemplate, any alteration in the existing law. 
Eepeal he hardly deigned to notice ; it would, he said, produce 
the greatest confusion and distress. There was, no doubt, the 
alternative of a fixed duty ; but if it should happen that the agri- 
culturists should come to prefer that to his sliding scale, then he 
was inclined to think that, not he, but Lord John Eussell would 
be the proper person to make the change. So closely did Peel 
habitually trim his sails to suit the shifting of the winds. 

In consequence of this declaration of the Minister, and of the 
improvement in the condition of the population, comparatively 
slight attention was paid to the discussion on Mr. Villiers's annual 
Motion (June 25). The League was violently abused by the 
Mileses, Bankeses, Ferrands, and Sir John Trollopes. It was 
again and again asserted that the rate of wages was regulated by 
the price of corn, and that the avowed object of the agitators was 
to lower wages by lowering corn. Cobden replied to such serious 
arguments as he could find in the course of the debate, but the 
front bench on the side of the Opposition was empty for most of 
the evening ; Lord John Eussell declined to vote : Mr. Bright was 
listened to with so much impatience that he was forced to sit 
down ; and a very hollow performance ended with a majority of 
204 against the Motion. 1 

In the earlier part of the session (March 12), Cobden had 
moved for a Select Committee to inquire into the effects of 
protective duties on agricultural tenants and laborers. This was 
a new approach. The main argument for repeal had hitherto 
been from the side of the manufacturing population. In what 
way, save by the admission of foreign corn in exchange for British 
manufactures, could we secure extended markets ; or, in other 
words, extended demand for the industry of the people ? Cobden 

1 328 against 124. 



JEt. 40.] THE SESSION OF 1844. 197 

now turned to the agricultural side of the question, and asked the 
House of Commons, as he had asked the farmers during the pre- 
vious year, to examine what advantage the Corn Law had brought 
to the agriculturists themselves. He described the condition of 
the laborer, morally, socially, and economically; said that it was the 
fear of falling into this condition which caused the strikes of the 
workmen in the towns ; and asked how a starved population of 
this kind could form that valuable class of domestic consumers, 
who were held out by the landlords to the manufacturers as ade- 
quate compensation for loss of customers abroad. The official 
duty of reply fell to Mr. Gladstone. His answer turned mainly 
on the inexpediency of assenting to a motion which would imply 
that the Corn Law was an open question, and which would there- 
fore tend to unsettle trade, disturb the revenue, and increase the 
excitement in people's minds. At present, Mr. Gladstone said, 
the League was thought to be a thing of no great practical mo- 
ment : its parade and ceremonial were perhaps the most impor- 
tant features about it; but if Parliament should take up the 
subject, then assuredly the League would acquire a consequence 
to which it had really no title. Cobden's motion was rejected by 
a vote of two hundred and twenty-four against one hundred and 
thirty-three, being a majority of ninety-one. 

This bad division had perhaps less than the general feeling of 
the House, as gathered from talk in the lobbies, to do with the 
changed view which Cobden now took of the prospects of the 
cause. The ardor of his hopes was relaxed, though not the firm- 
ness of his resolution. He gave expression to this in writing to 
his brother : — 

" It is now quite certain that our Free Trade labors must be 
spread over a larger space of time than we contemplated at one 
time. The agitation must be of a different kind to what we have 
hitherto pursued. In fact, we must merely have just so many 
demonstrations as will be necessary to keep hold of public atten- 
tion, and the work must go on in the way of registration labors in 
those large constituencies where we can hope to gain anything by 
a change of public opinion. The little pocket boroughs must be 
absolutely given over. They will not weigh as a feather in the 
settlement of the question. Time can alone effect the business. 
It cannot be carried by storm. We were wrong in thinking of it. 
In the mean time Peel's unsettlements are making enemies in the 
ranks of the united monopolists, and everybody is making up his 
mind to more change. As my labors must henceforth be less 
intense than heretofore, I shall be able to give more attention to 
my private affairs, which, Heaven knows, have been neglected 
enough." 1 

1 To F. W. Cobden, London, June 4, 1844. 



198 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1844. 

The following passage relates*to a subject which kindled more 
excitement in the country than any other question before Parlia- 
ment. It was an episode in the endless battle between bigotry 
and the sense of justice. The judgment in the famous case of 
Lady Hewley's bequest, finally delivered after fourteen years of 
litigation, exposed endowments which had been for several gener- 
ations in the hands of Unitarians, to the risk of appropriation by 
Trinitarian Dissenters. The Ministry brought in a Bill to con- 
firm religious bodies, whether Trinitarian or Unitarian, in the 
possession of property of which they had been in the enjoyment 
for twenty years. This measure was regarded by fanatics, alike 
of the Episcopalian and the independent churches, as favoring 
the deadly heresy of Unitarianism. The storm raged with furious 
violence ; but the Ministry held firm, and the Bill, which was 
conservative of the rights of property in the right sense, happily 
became law. Sir W. Follett's speech broke down the opposition. 
We may be sure on which side in the controversy Cobden was 
found. 

" I never entertained an idea of voting for the monopolists in 
matters of faith. Nor have I had a line from anybody at Stock- 
port to ask me to do so. As at present advised, I shall certainly 
vote for the Bill. What a spectacle we shall present, if the 
intolerance of the Commons should reject a measure which the 
Lords and the Bishops have passed ! It would confirm one's 
notion that the Government of this country is in advance of the 
people. 

" Lord Duncan's reply to a deputation was not amiss. He told 
them dryly, ' It may be a question whether the founders of the 
chapels in question intended them for the benefit of Unitarians 
or Trinitarians, but one thing is certain, they did not intend them 
for the lawyers, who will have every kick of them, unless the Bill 
is passed into a law.' This young chip of the old block who 
stood such hard knocking at Camperdown, said an equally good 
thing to the short-time delegates who called on him to abuse the 
factory masters. He told them to go home and thank God they 
had not the landlords for masters, for if they had, their wages 
would be reduced one half." 1 

It is now time to turn briefly to a subject which sprang as 
directly as Free Trade itself from the great Condition of England 
Question. Throughout this memorable Parliament, which sat 
from 1841 to 1847, we are conscious of a genuine effort, alike on 
the part of the Prime Minister and of independent reformers and 
philanthropists of all kinds, to grapple with a state of society 

l To F. W. Cobden, London, June 5, 1844. 



;et.40.] factory legislation. 199 

which threatened to become unmanageable. We see the Parlia- 
ment diligently feeling its way to one piece after another of wise 
and beneficent policy, winding up with the most beneficent of all. 
The development of manufactures, and the increase and redistri- 
bution of population which attended it, forced upon all the fore- 
most minds of that time a group of difficulties with which most 
of them were very inadequately prepared to deal. One fact will 
be enough to illustrate the extent of the change. In 1818 it was 
computed that 57,000 persons were employed in cotton factories. 
Within twenty-one years their numbers had increased to 469,000. 
How was this vast and rapid influx of population into the cotton 
towns, with all the new conditions which it implied, to be met ? 
Or was it to the statesman indifferent ? The author of Sybil 
seems to have apprehended the real magnitude and even the 
nature of the social crisis. Mr. Disraeli's brooding imaginative- 
ness of conception gave him a view of the extent of the social 
revolution as a whole, which was wider, if it did not go deeper, 
than that of any other contemporary observer. To accidents of 
his position in society and necessities of personal ambition, it 
must, I suppose, be attributed that one who conceived so truly 
the seriousness of the problem, should have brought nothing 
better to its solution than the childish bathos of Young England. 
Mr. Carlyle, again, had true vision of the changes that were sweep- 
ing the unconscious nation away from the bonds and principles 
of the past into an unknown future. But he had no efficient 
instruments for controlling or guiding the process. He was right 
enough in declaring that moral regeneration was the one thing 
needful to set the distracted nation at ease. In a particular crisis, 
however, moral regeneration is no more than a phrase. 

Cobden answered the question on the economic side. You 
must, he said, accept and establish the conditions of free exchange. 
Only on these terms can you make the best use of capital, and 
insure the highest attainable prosperity to labor. But at this 
point — they were then close upon the ever-memorable date of 
'48 — the gigantic, question of that generation loomed on the 
horizon. How are you to settle the mutual relations of capital and 
labor to one another ? Abolition of restriction may be excellent 
in the sphere of commodities. Is it so clear that the same con- 
dition suffices for the commonwealth, when the commodity to be 
exchanged is a man's labor ? Or is it palpably false and irrational 
to talk of labor as a commodity ? In other words, can the relations 
between labor and capital be safely left to the unfettered play of 
individual competition ? The answer of modern statesmanship is, 
that unfettered individual competition is not a principle to which 
the regulation of industry may be intrusted. There may be con- 
ditions which it is in the highest degree desirable to impose on 



200 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1844. 

industry, and to which the general opinion of the industrial classes 
may be entirely favorable. Yet the assistance of law may be 
needed to give effect to this opinion, because, — in the words of 
the great man who was now preparing the exposition of political 
economy that was to reign all through the next generation, — 
only law can afford to every individual a guaranty that his com- 
petitors will pursue the same course as to hours of labor and so 
forth, without which he cannot safely adopt it himself. * 

Cobden, as we have already seen (page 78), when he was 
first a candidate for Stockport, dissented from these theories. He 
could not adjust them to his general principle of the expediency 
of leaving every man free to carry his goods to whatever market 
he might choose, and to make the best bargain that' he could. 
The man who saw such good reasons for distrusting the regulation 
of markets by Act of Parliament, was naturally inclined to distrust 
parliamentary regulation of labor. In the case of children, Cob- 
den fully perceived that freedom of contract is only another name 
for freedom of coercion, and he admitted the necessity of legisla- 
tive protection. He never denied that restrictions on the hours 
of labor were desirable, and he knew by observation, both at home 
and abroad, that the hours of labor are no measure of its relative 
productiveness. What he maintained was that all restrictions, 
however desirable, ought to be secured by the resolute demands 
and independent action of the workmen themselves, and not by 
intervention of the law. 2 

Singularly enough, while he thus trusted to the independence 
of the workmen, he objected to workmen's combinations. " De- 
pend upon it," he said to his brother, " nothing can be got by fra- 
ternizing with trades unions. They are founded upon principles 
of brutal tyranny and monopoly. I would rather live under a 
Dey of Algiers than a Trades Committee." 3 Yet without combi- 
nation it is difficult to see how, on the great scale of modern 
industries, the workmen can exert any effective influence on the 
regulation of their labor. That in the first forms of combination 
there was both brutality and tyranny, is quite true. That these 
vices have almost disappeared is due in no small degree to an 
active fraternization, to use Cobden's own word, with the leaders 
of the workmen by members of the middle class, who represented 
the best moral and social elements in the public opinion of their 
time. 

The protection of the laboring population had in various forms 

1 J. S. Mill's Political Economy was not begun until 1845, but it bears abundant 
traces how closely he watched the course of legislation during the years immediately 
preceding. 

2 See Appendix A, at the end of the volume. 
8 To F. W. Cobden, August 16, 1842. 



.&T.40.] FACTORY LEGISLATION. . 201 

engaged the serious attention of Parliament for several years. So 
far back as 1802 there was a Factory Act, which was sanitary in 
its main intention, but also contained clauses regulating hours. 
Others followed in 1819 and 1825, and a very important factory 
law, containing the earliest provisions for education, was passed 
in 1833, by which time the workmen were partially able to make 
themselves heard in Parliament. In 1842 Lord Ashley had pro- 
cured the passing of the Mines and Collieries Act, a truly admira- 
ble and beneficent piece of legislation, excluding women from 
labor under ground, and rescuing children from conditions hardly 
less horrible than those of negro slavery. In 1843, still under 
the impulse of Lord Ashley, Sir James Graham brought in a Fac- 
tory Bill, not only regulating the hours of labor, but proposing a 
system for the education of the children of the industrial class in 
the manufacturing towns. Cobden took an early opportunity of 
saying a friendly word for the education clauses of the measure, as 
being a step in the right direction. Popular education had been 
the most important of all social objects in his mind from the first ; 
and in spite of drawbacks, which he did not despair of seeing 
amended, he saw more good than harm in the new proposals. 
These clauses, however, beyond doubt conferred advantages on the 
Established Church, in which the Dissenters justly and wisely 
refused to acquiesce. 1 It might well seem to be better that pop- 
ular instruction should still be left to voluntary machinery for 
some time longer, than that new authority and new fields of eccle- 
siastical control should be opened to the privileged church. The 
opposition was so vehement that the education clauses were 
dropped, and the Bill withdrawn. 

In 1844 Sir James Graham reintroduced it, without the educa- 
tion clauses, simply as a Bill for regulating the labor of children 
and young persons. The definition of a child was extended to 
mean children between nine and thirteen ; a child was only to be 
employed half time, that is to say, not more than six and a half 
hours each day. The definition of young persons remained as it 
was, covering persons from thirteen to eighteen ; their hours in 
silk, cotton, wool, and flax manufactories were not to exceed thir- 
teen and a half in each day ; and of these one hour and a half were 
to be allowed for meals and rest, leaving twelve hours as the limit 
of actual labor. Lord Ashley moved that the hours should be 
not twelve but ten, and on this issue the battle was fought. The 
factory question from this time, down to the passing of the Ten 
Hours Act, was part of the wider struggle between the country 
gentlemen and the manufacturers. The Tories were taunted with 

1 The provisions for trustees of the schools were undeniably and deliberately 
calculated to give the clergy of the Established Church a predominant power on 
every board. 



202 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1844. 

the condition of the laborers in the fields; and they retorted by 
tales of the condition of the operatives in factories. The manu- 
facturers rejoined by asking, if they were so anxious to benefit the 
workman, why they did not, by repealing the Corn Law, cheapen 
his bread. The landlords and the mill-owners each reproached the 
other with exercising the virtues of humanity at other people's 
expense. This was not Lord Ashley's own position. He was at 
this time in favor of the Corn Law, but his exertions for the fac- 
tory population were due to a disinterested and genuine interest 
in their welfare. In 1842 1 Cobden took a more generous, or 
rather a more just, view of Lord Ashley's character than he had 
been accustomed to express in his letters and conversation. " He 
would confess very frankly that before he entered that House, he 
had entertained doubts, in common with many of the employers 
in the north, whether those advocates of the Short Hours Bill 
who supported the Corn Law were really sincere. But since he 
had had an opportunity of a closer observation of the noble lord, 
he was perfectly convinced of his genuine philanthropy." That, 
however, was no reason why Lord Ashley should not be resisted, 
if his philanthropy led him wrong ; and Mr. Bright, while not 
denying that the hours of labor were longer than they ought to be, 
made a vigorous onslaught on him. " It was a perilous effort," 
Cobden wrote, " especially in the canting tone of the country, but 
our friend came off well, and there is much credit due to him for 
taking the bull by the horns. The Tories have gained nothing 
by'the last week's debate." 2 

Charles Buller defended Lord Ashley's proposal in what was a 
very wise speech, though it may have been made as a party move 
against Peel. Brougham poured out a torrent of invective in the 
House of Lords against all interference with labor. Most of the 
official Whigs, on the contrary, went for the limitation of ten 
hours, though they had stoutly opposed the same proposal when 
they were in power ; but in the end the Government carried their 
Act for twelve hours. 

" I did not vote upon the Factory question," Cobden wrote. 
" The fact is the Government are being whipped with a rod of 
their own pickling. They used the ten hours cry, and all other 
cries, to get into power, and now they find themselves unable to 
lay the devil they raised for the destruction of the Whigs. The 
trickery of the Government was kept up till the time of Ashley's 
motion, in the confident expectation that he w'ould be defeated b} r 
the Whigs and Free Traders. They (the Government) were cal- 
culating upon this support, and so they gave liberty to Wortley 
and others of their party to vote against the Cabinet in order to 

1 July 8. 2 To F. W. Cobden, London, March 16, 1844. 



^It.40.] FACTORY LEGISLATION. 203 

get favor at the hustings. The Whigs very basely turned round 
upon their former opinions to spite the Tories. The only good 
result is that no Government or party will in future like to use 
the factory question for a cry. The last year's education ques- 
tion, and this year's ten hours Bill, will sicken the factions of such 
a two-edged weapon. One other good effect may be that men 
like Graham and Peel will see the necessity of taking anchor 
upon some sound principles, as a refuge from the Socialist doc- 
trines of the fools behind them. But at all events good must 
come out of such startling discussions." * 

It cannot be seriously denied that Cobden was fully justified in 
describing the tendencies of this legislation as socialistic. It was 
an exertion of the power of the State in its strongest form, defi- 
nitely limiting in the interest of the laborer the administration of 
capital. The Act of 1844 was only a rudimentary step in this 
direction. In 1847 the Ten Hours Bill became law. Cobden 
was abroad at the time, and took no part in its final stages. In 
the thirty years that followed, the principle has been extended 
with astonishing perseverance. We have to-day a complete, 
minute, and voluminous code for the protection of labor ; build- 
ings must be kept pure of effluvia ; dangerous machinery must be 
fenced ; children and young persons must not clean it while in 
motion ; their hours are not only limited but fixed ; continuous 
employment must not exceed a given number of hours, varying 
with the trade, but prescribed by the law in given cases ; a stat- 
utable number of holidays is imposed ; the children must go to 
school, and the employer must every week have a certificate to 
that effect ; if an accident happens, notice must be sent to the 
proper authorities ; special provisions are made for bakehouses, 
for lace-making, for collieries, and for a whole schedule of other 
special callings ; for the due enforcement and vigilant supervision 
of this immense host of minute prescriptions, there is an immense 
host of inspectors, certifying surgeons, and other authorities, whose 
business it is " to speed and post o'er land and ocean " in restless 
guardianship of every kind of labor, from that of the woman who 
plaits straw at her cottage door, to the miner who descends into 
the bowels of the earth, and the seaman who conveys the fruits 
and materials of universal industry to and fro between the remot- 
est parts of the globe. But all this is one of the largest branches 
of what the most importunate Socialists have been accustomed to 
demand ; and if we add to this vast fabric of Labor legislation our 
system of Poor Law, we find the rather amazing result that in the 
country where Socialism has been less talked about than any 

i To F. W. Cobden, March 23, 1844. 



204 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1844. 

other country in Europe, its principles have been most exten- 
sively applied. 

If the Factory Law was in one sense a weapon with which the 
country party harassed the manufacturers, it was not long before 
Cobden hit upon a plan for retaliating. For two or three years 
the League had confined its operations to the creation of an en- 
lightened public opinion on the subject of the Corn Laws. Then 
it began to work in the boroughs, and Cobden was able to say 
that never at any previous date had so much systematic attention, 
time, and labor been given to the boroughs in the way of regis- 
tration. The power which had thus been given to the Free Trade 
party in nearly one hundred and fifty boroughs, was expected to 
make an immense, if not a decisive, difference in the next Par- 
liament. In the great county of Lancashire alone, such changes 
had been wrought by attention to the register, that it was calcu- 
lated that a new election would only leave the monopolists five 
out of the six-and-twenty members for the entire province. It 
now occurred to Cobden that these constituencies could be dealt 
with even more effectually. In the last division, not a single 
county member had gone into the lobby with Mr. Villiers. Cob- 
den's thought was to turn the counties by an indefinite increase 
of the constituencies. They were to be won through that section 
of the Reform Act which conferred the franchise in counties upon 
possessors of freehold property of the value of forty shillings a 
year. The landlords had already availed themselves to an im- 
mense extent of the Chandos clause. By the Chandos clause ten- 
ants at will, occupying at a yearly value of fifty pounds, had the 
franchise. The monopolists, in Cobden's words, worked this 
clause out ; they applied themselves to qualifying their tenant- 
farmers for the poll, " by making brothers, sons, nephews, uncles 
— ay, down to the third generation, if they happened to live upon 
the farm — all qualify for the same holding, and swear, if need be, 
that they were partners in the farm, though they were no more 
partners than you are. This they did, and successfully, and by that 
means gained the counties." "But," Cobden continued, "there 
was another clause in the Eeform Act, which we of the middle 
classes — the unprivileged, industrious men, who live by our capi- 
tal and labor — never found out, namely, the forty-shilling free- 
hold clause. I will set that against the Chandos clause, and we 

will beat them in the counties with it There is a large 

class of mechanics who save their forty or fifty pounds ; they have 
been accustomed perhaps to put it in the savings' bank. I will 
not say a word to undervalue that institution ; but cottage prop- 
erty will pay twice as much interest as the savings' bank. Then 
what a privilege it is for a man to put his hands in his pockets, 



J3T.40.] THE CONSTITUENCIES. 205 

and walk up and down opposite his own freehold, and say, ' This 
is my own ; I worked for it, and I have won it.' There are many 
fathers who have sons just ripening into maturity, and I know 
that parents are very apt to keep their property and the state of 
their affairs from their children. My doctrine is that you cannot 
give your son your confidence, or teach him to be intrusted with 
property, too early. When you have a son just coming to twenty- 
one years of age, the best thing you can do, if you have it in your 
power, is to give him a qualification for the county ; it accustoms 
him to the use of property, and to the exercise of a vote, whilst 
you are living and can have some little judicious control over it 
if necessary." x 

The reader will observe that Cobden's design was free from the 
sinister quality of manufactured voting. He supposed that men 
would acquire property in their own neighborhood, the natural 
seat of their political interests and activity. What is politically 
mischievous in this franchise only happens when, a number of 
strangers in possession of a factitious qualification invade a dis- 
trict and help to nullify the wishes and opinions of the majority 
of those who reside in it. Such a practice as -this seems at no 
time to have been in Cobden's contemplation. Still many people 
demurred. The plan wore the look of manufacturing votes ; it 
seemed, they said, mechanical, unworthy, and barely legitimate. 
No, replied Cobden, there is nothing savoring of trick or finesse 
of any kind in it ; the law and the constitution prescribe the 
condition ; you have a bond-fide qualification, and are conforming 
to the law both in spirit and in fact. This was quite true, and 
no plan ever proposed by the League met with so unanimous a 
response from all parts of the kingdom. It took two hours a day 
to read the letters that came from every part of the country, all 
applauding the scheme. By the beginning of 1845 between four 
and five thousand new electors had been brought upon the lists 
in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire. Not less than two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand pounds were invested in these counties 
in the forty-shilling qualification. It was believed that eight or 
ten times as many persons in other parts of the country had 
taken Cobden's hint to qualify. 

It was to be an immense enfranchisement, on old constitutional 
lines and secured by the spontaneous effort and civil spirit of the 
population itself. " Wherever there is a man above the rank of 
an unskilled laborer, whether a shopkeeper, a man of the middle 
class, or of the skilled working class, that has not got a county 
vote, or is not striving to accumulate enough to get one, let us 
point the finger of scorn at him ; he is not fit to be a freeman. It 

1 Speech at Covent Garden, Dec. 11, 1844. 



206 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

is an avenue by which we may reach the recesses of power, and 
possess ourselves of any constitutional rights which we are entitled 
to possess." In one of his speeches of that date, Cobden allowed 
it to be perceived that this great process had come into his mind 
not simply as a means of quickening the triumph of Free Trade, 
but as an agency for effecting a deep and permanent political 
transformation. " Some people," he said, " tell you that it is very 
dangerous and unconstitutional to invite people to enfranchise 
themselves by buying a freehold qualification. I say, without 
being revolutionary, or boasting of being more democratic than 
others, that the sooner the power in this country is transferred 
from the landed oligarchy, which has so misused it, and is placed 
absolutely — mind, I say absolutely — in the hands of the intelli- 
gent middle and industrious classes, the better for the condition 
and destinies of this country." 1 

Cobclen's eloquent colleague, Fox, placed the movement deeper 
still, by dwelling on the moral elements that lay beneath it. If 
it was wise and good, he said, to endeavor to make all who could 
save their pittance become fundholders, it must be at least as 
prudent and just to induce them according to their proportion to 
become landholders also — joint shareholders in this lovely and 
fruitful country, which is their country as much as it is that of the 
wealthiest nobleman whose lands cover half a county. It would 
give them a tangible bond of connection with society ; it would 
put them in a position which was deemed necessary to citizenship 
in the republics of ancient days ; and it was better adapted than 
anything else to cherish in them those emotions which best ac- 
cord with consistency and dignity of character. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

BASTIAT — NEW TACTICS — ACTIVITY IN PARLIAMENT — MAYNOOTH 
GRANT PRIVATE AFFAIRS. 

It was in this year that Cobden made the acquaintance of 
a French thinker who has clone more than any other of his coun- 
trymen to give vivid and imaginative color to the principles 
which in England we usually call Cobclen's. Bastiat was born in 
1806. He lived on a meagre ancestral property on the banks 
of the Adour, in the remote obscurity of the Landes. For twenty 
years he had been almost solitary among his farms, studying the 

1 Speeches, i. 256. Jan. 15, 1845. 



jEt.4L] bastiat. 207 

great economic writers, discussing, them from time to time with 
the only friend he had, occasionally making a short journey, and 
always practising what Kousseau calls that rarest kind of philoso- 
phy which consists in observing what we see every day. By 
chance he fell on an English newspaper. He was amazed to find 
that a body of practical men in England were at the moment 
actually engaged, and engaged with the reasonable prospect of 
success, in pressing for that Free Trade of which he had only 
dared to dream as a triumph of reason possible in some distant 
future. For two years he watched the progress of the agitation 
with eager interest. As was natural, what he saw rapidly stirred 
in him a lively desire for a similar illumination in his own coun- 
try. He sat down to write an account of the English movement. 
In the summer of 1845 he went to Paris to see his book through 
the press. With his long hair and unfashionable hat, his rustic 
clothes and homely umbrella, he had the air of an honest coun- 
tryman come to see the marvels of the town. But there was a 
look of thought on his square brow, a light in his full dark eye, 
and a keenness in his expression, which told people that they 
were dealing with an enthusiast and a man of ideas. Bastiat 
took the opportunity of being in Paris to push on to London, 
there to behold with his own eyes the men who had so long 
excited his wonder and his admiration. He hastened to the 
office of the League, with copies of his book in his hand. " They 
told me," he wrote to his friend, " that Cobden was on the point 
of starting for Manchester, and that he was most likely preparing 
for the journey at that moment. An Englishman's preparation 
consists of swallowing a beefsteak and thrusting two shirts into 
a carpet-bag. I hurried to Cobden's house, where I found him, 
and we had a conversation which lasted for two hours. He un- 
derstands French very well, speaks it a little, and I understand his 
English. I explained the state of opinion in France, the results 
that I expect from my book, and so on." Cobden in short re- 
ceived him with his usual cordiality, told him that the League 
was a sort of free-masonry, that he ought to take- up his quarters 
at the hotel of the League, and to spend his evenings there in 
listening to the fireside talk of Mr. Bright and the rest of the band. 
A day or two afterwards, at Cobden's solicitation, Bastiat went 
down to Manchester. His wonder at the ingenious methods 
and the prodigious scale of the League increased with all that 
he saw. His admiration for Cobden as a public leader grew into 
hearty affection for him as a private friend, and this friendship 
became one of the chief delights of the few busy years of life that 
remained to him. 

There had never been any anxiety among the men of the 
League to stir foreign opinion. " We came to the conclusion," 



208 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

Cobclen said, " that the less we attempted to persuade foreigners 
to adopt our trade principles, the better ; for we discovered so 
much suspicion of the motives of England, that it was lending an 
argument to the protectionists abroad to incite the popular feel- 
ing against the Free Traders, by enabling them to say — 'See 
what these men are wanting to do : they are partisans of English- 
men, and they are seeking to prostrate our industries at the feet 
of that perfidious nation.' . . . . To take away this pretence we 
avowed our total indifference whether other nations became free 
traders or not : but we should abolish Protection for our own 
sakes, and leave other countries to take whatever course they 
liked best." * When Bastiat came to the work of agitation in his 
own country, he found all the difficulties that his friends of the 
League had foreseen. 

His book, Cobden et la Ligue, came gradually into greater 
vogue as the movement grew more important, and when the hour 
of triumph came in England, Bastiat shared its glory in France, 
as one who had foreseen its importance at a time when no 
French newspaper had been courageous or intelligent enough to 
give its readers' any information on a subject which was necessa- 
rily so unwelcome in a country of monopolies. Bastiat felt that 
the title of his book had perhaps wounded some of Cobden's 
fellow-workers, and among men less strenuous and single-minded 
he might have been right. He defended himself by the reflection 
that in France, and perhaps we are not very different in England, 
it is necessary that a doctrine should be personified in an individ- 
ual. A great movement, he said, must be summed up in a proper 
name. Without the imposing figure of O'Connell the agita- 
tion in Ireland would have passed without notice in the French 
journals. " The human mind," he wrote to Cobden, " has need 
of flags, banners, incarnations, proper names ; and this is more 
true in France than anywhere else. Who knows that your career 
may not excite the emulation of some man of genius in this 
country ?" 2 

Bastiat was always conscious of the difference between Cobden's 
gifts and his own, and nobody knew better than himself how 
much more fit he was for a life of speculation than for the career 
of an agitator. But there was no one else in France to begin the 
work of propagandism and the organization of opinion. Cobden 
told him that the movement which had been made from those 
below to those above in England, ought in France to proceed in the 
opposite course. There they would do best to begin at the top. 
In France in 1846 they had scarcely any railways, and they had 
no penny postage. They were not accustomed to subscriptions, 

1 Cobden to Mr. Van dcr Maeren. Oct. 5, 1856. 

2 Dec. 1845. CEuv. i. 117. 



Mt. 41.] BASTIAT. 209 

and still less were they accustomed to great public meetings. 
Worse than all this, the popular interest was at that epoch turned 
away from the received doctrines of political economy in the 
direction of Communism and Fourierism. These systems spoke 
a language infinitely more attractive to the imagination of the 
common people. Bastiat, fired by Cobden's example, set bravely 
to work to make converts among men of mark. Besides being 
a serious thinker, he had the gifts, always so valuable in France, 
of irony, of apt and humorous illustration, of pungent dialectic. 
The style and finish of the Economic Sophisms, in which he re- 
futed the fallacies of Monopoly, are even declared to be worthy 
of the author of the Provincial Letters. But the movement did 
not prosper. At Bordeaux, indeed, where the producers of wine 
were eager for fresh markets, a free trade association was formed, 
and it throve. Elsewhere the cause made little way. Political 
differences ran so high as to prevent hearty co-operation on a 
purely economical platform. The newspapers were written by 
lads of twenty, with the ignorance and the recklessness proper to 
their age. They were conducted by men who were in close con- 
nection with the politicians, so that everything in their hands 
became a question between Ministry and Opposition. Worst of 
all they were venal. Prejudice, error, and calumny were paid for 
by the line. One was sold to the Kussians, another to Protec- 
tion, this to the university, that to the bank. " Our agitation," 
Bastiat wrote to Cobden, " agitates very little. We still need a 
man of action. When will he arise ? I cannot tell. I ought to 
be that man ; I am urged to the part by the unanimous confidence 
of my colleagues, but I cannot. The character is not there, and 
all the advice in the world cannot make an oak out of a reed." x 
We know not what encouragement Cobden gave to his friend, 
for by an evil chance his letters to Bastiat were all destroyed. 
Their correspondence was tolerably constant, and if Bastiat was 
indebted to Cobden for the energy of his views on Free Trade, 
Cobden may well have had his own views strengthened and diver- 
sified by Bastiat's keen and active logic. Bastiat always said that 
he valued the spirit of free exchange more than free exchange 
itself, and Cobden had already been approaching this doctrine 
before Bastiat became his, friend. 

The League was now in the seventh year of its labors. In 
1839 their subscriptions had only reached what afterwards seemed 
the modest amount of 5000Z. The following year they rose to 
nearly 800(M. In 1843 the Council asked for 50,000/. and got it. 
In 1844 they asked for twice as much, and by the end of the year 

1 Bastiat to Cobden. March 20 and April 20, 1847. (Euv. i. 156-159. 

14 



210 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

between 80,000/. and 90,000/. had been paid in. They were now 
spending 1000/. a week. In spite of the activity which was in- 
volved in these profuse supplies, the outlook of the cause was, 
perhaps, never less hopeful or encouraging. The terrible depres- 
sion which had at first given so poignant an impulse to the agita- 
tion had vanished. Peel's great manipulation of the tariff had 
done something to bring about a revival of trade. Much more 
had been done by two magnificent harvests. Wheat, which had 
been up at sixty-seven shillings when Cobden came into Parlia- 
ment, and then at sixty-one shillings in 1843, was now down at 
forty-five. Trade and commerce were thriving. The revenue 
was flourishing. Pauperism had declined. The winter had lasted 
for five months and had been very rigorous, yet even the agricul- 
tural laborers had suffered less distress than in the winters before. 
This happy state of things was in fact a demonstration of the 
truth of what Cobden and his friends were struggling to impress 
upon the country, namely, that a moderate price of food was a 
condition of good wages and brisk trade. 1 The plain inference 
from what had been going on for two years before men's eyes, 
was that every impediment in the way of abundant food was an 
impediment in the way both of the comfort of the population and 
the prosperity of national industry. What good harvests had 
done for two years, repeal of the Corn Law would help to do in 
perpetuity. " The present state of our finances and manufactures," 
said Cobden, at the beginning of 1845, "is an illustration of the 
truth of the Free Trade doctrines." Yet oddly enough, the very 
circumstances which showed that the Leaguers were right, made 
people for the moment less in earnest for the success of their 
programme. So long as times were good, the Ministers were safe 
and the League was powerless. Meetings were still thronged, 
and a great bazaar was opened at Covent Garden in the spring, 

1 At a meeting held in Oldham, a workman got up in the body of the hall. He 
had been thinking, he said, on the subject of the Cora Laws for twenty years ; as 
there was no possibility that he should ever see Sir Robert Peel, as he never came 
down into that neighborhood, and as he, the speaker, could not bear the expense of 
a journey to London, he begged Mr. Cobden to convey to the Prime Minister the 
following train of thought : — " When provisions are high, the people have so much 
to pay for them that they have little or nothing left to buy clothes with ; and when 
they have little to buy clothes with, few clothes are sold ; and when there are few 
clothes sold, there are too many to sell ; and when there are too many to sell, they 
are very cheap ; and when they are very cheap, there cannot be much paid for 
making them ; and consequently the manufacturing workingman's wages are re- 
duced, the mills are shut up, business is ruined, and general distress is spread 
through the country. But when as now the workingman has the said 25s. [the 
fall in the price of wheat] left in his pocket, he buys more clothing with it, ay, and 
other articles of comfort too, and that increases the demand for them, and the 
greater the demand, you know, makes them rise in price, and the rising in price 
enables the workingman to get higher wages and the master better profits. This 
therefore is the way I prove that high provisions make lower wages, and cheap pro- 
visions make higher wages." — Quoted in Cobden's SpeecJies, i. 251. 



2ET.4L] NEW TACTICS. 211 

which was a nine days' wonder. This notwithstanding, there 
was a certain pause out of doors in the actuality of the struggle. 

The change did not escape the acute observation of the League. 
They at once altered their tactics. The previous year had been 
devoted to agitation in the country. They now came round to 
the opinion that Parliament, after all, was the best place in which 
to agitate. " You speak with a loud voice," said Cobden, " when 
you are talking on the floor of the House ; and if you have any- 
thing to say that hits hard, it is a very long whip and reaches all 
over the kingdom." It was in Parliament that they were best 
able to conduct an assault on the Monopolist citadel from a new 
side. They had tried in their short campaign to show the farmers 
themselves that Protection was no better for them than for other 
people. They now made a vigorous effort to bring the same thing 
home to the farmers' friends in Parliament. " It gives me in- 
creased hopes," Cobden wrote to his friend, George Combe, " to 
hear that you, who are a calm observer, think that we are making 
such rapid progress in our agitation. We who are in the whirl of 
it can hardly form an opinion whether we are advancing or only 
revolving. But I think there are symptoms that the enemy is 
preparing for a retreat. The squires in the House are evidently 
without confidence in themselves, while the farmers are losing all 
faith in their old protectors, and Peel is doing his best to shake 
the confidence of both landlords and tenants in any minister. 
Good will come out of this. People will be thrown back upon 
their own resources of judgment. In fact, the public will be 
taught to think for themselves. With respect to Mr. W., he and 
I are very friendly ; I have had nothing but civility, and indeed 
kindness, at his hands ever since I came into the House. He is 
a man of very great kindness of nature, full of bonhomie in fact. 
If he has a fault, it is in being too placable, possessing too much 
love of approbation, which makes him rather fond of praising 
people, especially his opponents. He is, however, upon the whole, 
a fine-hearted man." 1 

In the midst of the general prosperity, there was one great 
interest which did not thrive : this was the interest of the tenant- 
farmer. Deputations waited upon the Prime Minister to tell him 
that the farmers in Norfolk were paying rent out of capital ; that 
half the small farmers in Devonshire were insolvent, and the 
others were rapidly sinking to the same condition ; that the agri- 
culturists of the whole of the south of England, from the Trent to 
the Land's End, were in a state of embarrassment and distress. 2 
There was scarcely a week in which these topics did not find their 
way into the Parliamentary debates. Cobden brought forward a 

1 To George Combe. London, Feb. 23, 1845. 2 Cobden's Speeches, i. 261. 



212 LTFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

motion for a Select Committee to inquire into the causes of the 
alleged agricultural distress. A few nights afterwards one of the 
country gentlemen in the House moved a resolution for affording 
relief to the landed interests in the application of surplus revenue. 
Then came a proposal from a League member for a Committee to 
find out what was really the nature and amount of the peculiar 
burdens of which the landed interest had to complain. Mr. Bright 
moved for a Committee on the Game Laws. Mr. Villiers pressed 
his regular annual motion for total and immediate repeal. Lord 
John Eussell introduced a string of nine resolutions, dealing with 
the Corn Laws, the law of parochial settlement, national education, 
and systematic colonization, all with a view to the permanent 
improvement of the condition of the working class, and especially 
of the laborers in husbandry. 

" Bright did his work admirably," says Cobden, " and won golden 
opinions from all men. His speech took the squires quite aback. 
At the morning riieeting of the county members at Peel's, to decide 
upon the course to be taken, the Prime Minister advised his pack 
not to be drawn into any discussion by the violent speech of the 
member for Durham, but to allow the Committee to be granted sub 
silentio ! This affair will do us good in a variety of ways. It has 
put Bright in a right position — shown that he has power, and it 
will draw the sympathy of the farmers to the League. The latter 
conviction seemed to weigh heavily upon the spirits of the squires. 
They seemed to feel that we had put them in a false position 
towards their tenants, and the blockheads could not conceal their 
spite towards the League. I pleaded guilty for the League to all 
they charged us with on this score." 1 

The result of these incessant challenges to the landlords and 
to the Ministers was a thorough sifting of the arguments, and 
the establishment of a perfectly clear and intelligible position. 
No Committee was granted, except Mr. Bright's, but discussion 
brought out the main facts as clearly as any Committee could 
have done. It became stamped on men's minds that while 
abundant food stimulated manufactures and promoted the com- 
fort of the whole body of workmen and laborers, legislative 
protection was not saving, and could not save, the farmers. The 
contention, again, that the landlords were subjected to special 
burdens, and were therefore entitled to special exemptions, had 
completely broken down. The whole process went on under the 
closely attentive eyes of the Prime Minister. The year before, 
said Cobden, he had not penetrated the quality of his protectionist 
friends. 'This year they set up for themselves ; they found out their 
weakness, and, what is more, they let Sir Eobert find it out also. 2 

1 To Mr. George Wilson. London, Feb. 28, 1845. 2 Speeches, i. 290. 



.aSr.41.] NEW TACTICS. 213 

Cobden hirnself helped to the result by one of the most impor- 
tant speeches that he ever made. " We are certainly," he wrote to 
his wife, " taking more prominent ground this session than ever, and 
the tone of the farmers' friends is very subdued indeed. They 
never open their mouths if they can help it, and then they speak 
in a very humble strain. I am quite in a fidget about my speech 
on Thursday. You will think it very strange in an old hack 
demao'oo-ue like me, if I confess that I am as nervous as a maid the 

• mi 

day before her wedding. The reason is I suppose that I know a 
good deal is expected from me, and I am afraid I shall disappoint 
others as well as myself. I have sent for Mr. Lattimore, who 
came up and spent an evening with me, on purpose to give me a 
lesson about the farmers' view of the question." 1 

" I was terribly out of sorts with the task," he said, after it was 
all over, " and when I got up to speak, I was all in a maze." In 
fact, an intimate friend who had stood on many a platform with 
him, found him in the lobby, pale, nervous, and confident that he 
should break down in the middle of his speech. " No, you will 
not," said his friend; "your nervousness convinces me that you 
will make a better speech than you ever made before in your life." 
And that is what actually happened. In sending his wife a copy 
of the Times containing a report of his speech, Cobden wrote to her 
that everybody in the House on both sides spoke highly of it, and 
declared it to be his best. " But I don't think," he adds, " that it 
was as good as it ought to have been." 2 The Prime Minister had 
followed every sentence with earnest attention ; his face grew more 
and more solemn as the argument proceeded. At length he 
crumpled up the notes which he had been taking, and was heard by 
an onlooker, who was close by, to say to Mr. Sidney Herbert, who 
sat next him on the bench, " You must answer this, for /cannot." 
And in fact Mr. Sidney Herbert did make the answer, while Peel 
listened in silence. 3 

This speech should be read in connection with the companion 
speech made the year before, and already referred to (p. 196). 
Much of Cobden's speaking, and especially at this time, though 
never deficient in point and matter, was loose in its form and slip- 

1 To Mrs. Cobden. March 11, 1845. 2 To Mrs. Cobden. March 14, 1845. 

3 In the course of his speech Mr. Sidney Herbert said that it was very distasteful 
to him, as a member of the agricultural body, to be always coming to Parliament 
" whining for protection." The expression was unlucky, and gave Mr. Disraeli the 
hint for one of his most pungent sallies. The agriculturists, he said, referring to 
Peel's inconsistencies, must not contrast too nicely the hours of courtship with the 
moments of possession. "There was little said now about the gentlemen of Eng- 
land ; when the beloved object has ceased to charm, it is vain to appeal to the 
feelings. Instead of listening to their complaints, he sends down his valet, a well- 
behaved person, to make it known that we are to have no ' whining ' here. Such is 
the fate of the great agricultural interest ; that beauty which everybody wooed, and 
one deluded." 



214 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

shod in arrangement. That it should be so, was unavoidable under 
the circumstances in which his addresses were made. These two 
speeches, on the contrary, show him at his best. They are models 
of the way in which a great case should be presented to the House 
of Commons, as well as admirable examples of effective selection, 
luminous arrangement, and honest cogency of reasoning in intri- 
cate and difficult matter. Besides all this, they show how com- 
pletely Cobden had worked out the whole conception of economic 
policy and the whole scheme of statesmanship, of which the repeal 
of the Corn Law was only a detail and a condition precedent. 
Many of the subscribers to the League were no doubt only thinking 
that Free Trade would bring them new armies of good customers. 
The Whigs, on the other hand, while sincerely concerned for the 
social state of the realm, picked up the notion of Free Trade 
vaguely, along w T ith education and colonization, as one remedy 
among others. Cobden alone seemed to discern what Free Trade 
meant, how it was being forced upon us by increase of population 
and other causes, and how many changes it would bring w T ith it 
in the whole social structure. It was this commanding grasp of 
the entire policy of his subject, which gradually gave Cobden such 
a hold over the receptive intelligence of Sir Robert Peel that at 
last it amounted to a fascination that was irresistible. 

Why are the farmers distressed ? Cobden asked. Why are 
English farmers less successful than English manufacturers ? 
Because they are working their trade w T ith insufficient capital. 
Throughout England, south of the Trent and including Wales, 
the farmers' capital is not more than five pounds an acre, whereas 
for carrying on the business successfully it ought to be twice as 
much. How is it that in a country overflowing with capital, 
where every other pursuit is abounding with money, when money 
is going to France for railways and to Pennsylvania for bonds, 
when it is connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific by canals, 
and diving to the bottom of the Mexican mines for investments, 
it yet finds no employment in the most attractive of all spots, the 
soil of this country itself? The answer is plain. There is no 
security of tenure such as will warrant men of capital in invest- 
ing their money in the soil. But what is the connection between 
this insecurity of tenure and agricultural protection ? The reply 
is that the protectionist landowners are in a vicious circle. They 
think the Corn Laws are a great mine of wealth ; they want 
voters to retain them, and therefore they will have dependent 
tenants on whom- they may count at the elections. If they insist 
on having dependent tenants they will not get men of spirit and 
of capital. The policy reacts upon them. If they have not men 
of skill and capital they cannot have full provision and employ- 
ment for the laborer. And then comes round the vicious close of 



jEt.4L] ACTIVITY IN PARLIAMENT. 215 

the circle, pauperism, poor-rates, county-rates, and all the other 
" special burdens " of the landed interest — special burdens of 
their own express creation. 1 Their fundamental error lay in 
thinking that rents could only be kept up by Protection. Even 
if this had been true, Protection had become impossible, from the 
pressure of population. But it was not true. 

To the farmers Cobden had never given a probable reduction 
of rents as one of the reasons for repealing the Corn Law. He 
told them something still more important. " Though I have not 
promised reduction of rent," he said, " I have, however, always 
maintained that with Free Trade in corn, and with moderate 
prices, if the present rents are to be maintained, it must be by 
means of a different system of managing property from that which 
you now pursue. You must have men of capital on your land ; 
you must let your land on mercantile principles ; you must 
not be afraid of an independent and energetic man who will vote 
as he pleases ; you must give up inordinate game-preserving." 2 

This was the skeleton of Cobden's argument, and each member 
of it was clothed with exactly the amount of graphic illustrations 
from sound authorities that was calculated to bring the case effect- 
ively home. The representatives of the farmers were surprised 
to be told of many things, which they immediately wondered that 
they had not thought of before. The farmers of Kent, Suffolk, 
and Surrey, enjoyed a protection in their hops, but they had in 
return to pay for the protection on other articles which they did 
not produce. Those of Chester, Gloucester, and Wilts had an 
interest in protecting cheese, but they were heavily taxed for the 
oats and beans which they wanted for their beasts. The farmers 
in the Lothians had the benefit of a restrictive duty on wheat, 
but this was a trifle compared with the disadvantage of having 
to pay duty on linseed cake and other items of provender for 
cattle. Everybody, in short, was taxed for the benefit of every- 
body else. If the farmer derived so little good from protection, 
the laborer derived still less. Members were startled to be told 
that more goods had been exported to Brazil in a year than had 
been consumed in the same time by the whole agricultural 
peasantry and their families in England ; that no laborer in Eng- 
land spent more than thirty shillings a year in manufactures, if 
the article of shoes were excepted ; that the same class did not 
pay fifteen shillings a head per annum to the revenue, and that 
the whole of their contributions to the revenue did not amount 
to three quarters of a million a year. This, said Cobden trium- 
phantly, is the pass to which thirty years of Protection have brought 
the agricultural interest. " There never was a more monstrous 

1 Speeches, i. 264, 265. 2 Speeches, i. 402, 403. March 8, 1849. 



216 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845- 

delusion than to suppose that- that which goes to increase the 
trade of the country, and to extend its manufactures and com- 
merce ; that which increases our population, enlarges the number 
of your customers, and diminishes your burdens by multiplying 
the shoulders that are to bear them, and giving them increased 
strength to bear them, can possibly tend to lessen the value of 
land." i 

Mr. Disraeli once said that Free Trade was not a principle, it 
was an expedient. In Cobden's hands just the reverse is true ; 
Free Trade is not an expedient ; it is a principle, a doctrine, and 
a system. He is often charged with arguing his case too exclu- 
sively on the immediate exigencies of the situation. It was hardly 
possible for him to do otherwise. Neither the House of Commons 
nor the multitude at Covent Garden would have listened with 
patience to a lecture on international exchanges. But whenever 
he had a chance, Cobden took care to rest his argument on the 
importance of a free circulation in the currents of exchange. In 
his speech of the previous year, he had blamed Sir Eobert Peel 
for promising cheap prices as the result of his tariff. The price 
of commodities, said Cobden, may spring from two causes : — a 
temporary, fleeting, and retributive high price, produced by 
scarcity ; or a permanent and natural high price, produced by 
prosperity. The price of wool, for example, had been highest 
when the importation was greatest ; it sprang from the prosperity 
of the consumers. Peel, therefore, took the " least comprehensive 
and statesmanlike view of his measures when he proposed to 
lower prices, instead of aiming to maintain them by enlarging 
the circle of exchange." Prices would take care of themselves 
without detriment to the consumer, provided only that the stream 
of commodities were allowed to flow freely and without artificial 
interruption. (See below, p. 541.) 

■ This important idea was probably far beyond the reach of most 
of Cobden's hearers. I know there are many heads, he once 
said, who cannot comprehend and master a proposition in political 
economy, for I believe that that study is the highest exercise of 
the human mind, and that the exact sciences require by no means 
so hard an effort. 1 If, however, Cobden's economic language was 
a desperate jargon to the country gentlemen, it came with the 
power of revelation to their leader. " Sir Robert Peel," said Mr. 
Disraeli, in his subtle and striking portrait of his great enemy, 
" had a dangerous sympathy with the creations of others. He 
was ever on the look-out for new ideas, and when he did so he 

1 Speeches, i. 382. Some extremely interesting supplementary criticisms on 
Cobden's view of the effects of Protection on agricultural interests are to be found 
in Mr. Fawcett's Free Trade and Protection, pp. 37-47. 

2 Speeches, i. 383. Feb. 27, 1846. 



jBt.41.] ACTIVITY IN PARLIAMENT. 217 

embraced them with, eagerness and often with precipitancy. Al- 
thoifgh apparently wrapped up in himself and supposed to be 
egotistical, except in seasons of rare exaltedness, as in the year 
1844-45, he was really deficient in self-confidence. There was 
always some person representing some theory or system exercising 
an influence over his mind. In his ' sallet days ' it was Mr. Hor- 
ner or Sir Samuel Eomilly ; in later and more important periods 
it was the Duke of Wellington, the King of the French, Mr. 
Jones Loyd, some others, and finally Mr. Cobden." 1 

It was in this session that Mr. Disraeli first opened his raking 
fire upon the Prime Minister. In 1842, as has been already seen 
(p. 160), he declared that Peel's policy was. in exact, permanent, 
and perfect consistency with the principles of Free Trade laid 
down by Mr. Pitt. But clouds had risen on the horizon since 
then. Things had happened which made the rising gladiator 
change his mind, not as to the national expediency of Free Trade, 
but as to the personal expediency of carrying his sword to the 
opposite camp. Sir Eobert, soon after coming into power, observed 
to a friend that he knew too little of the young men of the party, 
and expressed a wish to know more. The friend invited him to 
dinner, and among the men of promise who were presented to 
their chief was Mr. Disraeli. Peel, one of the most formal and 
even pedantic of men, was repelled by the extravagant dress, the 
singular mannerism, the unbusinesslike air of the strange genius 
who sat at table with him. Nothing came of the interview, and 
the mortified aspirant had to bide his time. In 1845 Mr. Disraeli 
felt, as he afterwards said, that Protection was in the condition in 
which Protestantism had been in 1828. With a shrewder instinct 
than Peel, he scented the elements of a formidable and destructive 
mutiny. Success was not certain, but it was possible enough to 
be worth trying. With unparalleled daring he hastened to sound 
the attack. In the session of 1845 Peel seemed to be at the 
height of his power. Yet this was the session in which Mr. 
Disraeli mocked him as a fine actor of the part of the choleric 
gentleman ; as the great parliamentary middleman, who bam- 
boozled one party and plundered the other; as the political 
Petruchio, who had tamed the Liberal shrew by her own tactics ; 
as the Tory who had found the Whigs bathing and stolen their 
clothes. " For my part," he said on one of these occasions, " if 
we are to have Free Trade, I, who honor genius, prefer that such 
measures should be proposed by the member for Stockport, rather 
than by one who by skilful parliamentary manoeuvres has tampered 
with the generous confidence of a great people and a great party." 

Yet Mr. Disraeli, whose sagacity was always of far too power- 

1 Lord George Bentinck, p. 221. 



218 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

ful a kind to allow him to blink facts, knew very well, as he 
afterwards said, that practically for the moment the Conservative 
Government was stronger at the end of the session of 1845 than 
even at the commencement of the session of 1842. "If they 
had forfeited the hearts of their adherents, they had not lost their 
votes ; while both in Parliament and the country they had suc- 
ceeded in appropriating a mass of loose, superficial opinion, hot 
trammelled by party ties, and which complacently recognized in 
their measures the gradual and moderate fulfilment of a latitudi- 
narian policy both in Church and State." The same keen observer 
goes on to remark of those with whom we are immediately con- 
cerned, that in spite of their powers of debate and their external 
organization, the close of the session found the members of the 
Manchester confederacy reduced to silence. The state of prices, 
of the harvests, of commerce, had rendered appeals varied even 
by the persuasive ingenuity of Mr. Cobden a wearisome iteration. 1 

Cobden himself, however, knew exactly how things stood, and 
foresaw with precision how they would move. In the summer of 
1845, when Parliament had found his appeal a wearisome itera- 
tion, he had before him one of those immense multitudes, such as 
could only be assembled, he said, in ancient Eome to witness the 
brutal conflicts of men, or as can now be found in Spain to wit- 
ness the brutal conflicts of animals. What, he asked, if you could 
get into the innermost minds of the Ministers, would you find 
them thinking as to the repeal of the Corn Laws ? "I know it 
as well as though I were in their hearts. It is this : they are all 
afraid that this Corn Law cannot be maintained — no, not a rag 
of it, during a period of scarcity prices, of a famine season, such 
as we had in '39, '40, and '41. They know it. They are prepared, 
when such a time comes, to abolish the Corn Laws, and they 
have made up their minds to it. There is no doubt in the world 
of it. They are going to repeal it," he went on, " as I told you 
— mark my words — at a season of distress. That distress may 
come ; ay, three weeks of showery weather when the wheat is in 
bloom or ripening, would repeal these Corn Laws." 2 You cannot 
call statesmanship, he scornfully argued, a policy which leaves the 
industrial scheme of such a country as ours to stand or fall in 
such a way as this on the cast of a die. It was not long before 
events put Cobden startlingly in the right. 

The great popular agitation of the year, as it happened, was 
caused by a measure which touched a very different kind of sensi- 
bility. This session Peel introduced the memorable proposal for 
the augmentation of the grant to the Catholic College at May- 
nooth. That laudable measure was a small detail in the policy 

1 Life of Bentinck, p. 7. 2 Speeches, i. 292, 299. 



,Et.4L] THE MAYNOOTH GRANT. 219 

of breaking up the old system of Ascendency — a policy made 
necessary by the revolution of Catholic Emancipation, in which 
Peel had assisted in so remarkable a way. Unfortunately, Peel 
never saw what clear-sighted men like Lord Clare saw at the 
time of the Union, that the tenure of land was the only real 
object of interest to the people to whom he had given political 
emancipation. His attitude in reference to the Encumbered 
Estates Act showed that he did not possess the key to the 
Irish question. But his views on the solution of the religious 
difficulty were thoroughly statesmanlike, so far as that particular 
difficulty went. Nothing that he ever did showed greater cour- 
age than the Maynooth grant ; for though he carried his second 
reading by the enormous majority of 147, Mr. Gladstone was 
undoubtedly right when he reluctantly affirmed that the minority 
represented the prevailing sense of a great majority of the people 
of England and Scotland. 1 The principles on which Peel de- 
fended the increased grant to Maynooth, pointed very directly 
towards a scheme for the endowment of the Catholic clergy. It 
was for this reason, among others, that Lord John Eussell sup- 
ported the increased grant. " The arguments," he said, " which 
are so sound, and as I think so incontrovertible, for an endow- 
ment for the education of the Eoman Catholic priesthood, would 
prove on another occasion equally sound and incontrovertible 
for an endowment to maintain that priesthood." It is doubtful 
whether any Liberal leader will ever again be able to take what 
was once so wise and just a position, but there is still room for 
the position which Cobden took. Mr. Bright opposed the grant 
altogether, on the ground that no purely ecclesiastical institution 
should be paid for out of the public taxes. Cobden, on the con- 
trary, both spoke and voted for the Ministerial Bill. He was 
unable to find in it anything relating to the endowment of the 
Catholic clergy: what he voted for was simply and purely an 
extended educational grant. What objection could there be to 
giving a good education, in any manner in which it can be most 
effectually given, to a body of men who are to be the instructors 
of many millions of people ? You give large grants to elementary 
schools in Ireland ; you vote money to the university, from which 
the Catholic clergy cannot benefit ; but if you support instruction 
to Eoman Catholics at all, it is wise and politic to give it to the 
clergy before every other order. On the merits he would support 

1 Mr. Gladstone had resigned the office of President of the Board of Trade at 
the beginning of the Session, on the rather singular ground that, while he approved 
of the Maynooth grant and was going to support it, he had once written a book in 
which a different view of the proper relations between State and Church had been 
laid down. "As a general rule, those who have borne solemn testimony on great 
constitutional questions ought not to be parties to proposing a material departure 
from them." 



220 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

the proposal, and he would do so all the more cheerfully on the 
ground that it was acceptable to the Irish people. 1 This is as 
wise as political wisdom can be, but the present state of the Irish 
University question looks as if Mr. Bright's view, and not Cob- 
den's, had won the day. 

The following extracts from letters to his wife will show how 
Cobden passed the time from day to day, during this anxious and 
wearisome session : — 

"London, Feb. 11, 1845. — I met Lord Howick [the present 
Earl Grey] at dinner, as was told you by Miss Bright. He did 
not convert me to Whiggery, nor did he make any attempt upon 
my virtue. He is in very good temper with the League, and 
quite disposed to help us, and to throw the fixed duty overboard. 
Bright made a very powerful but rasping speech the other night. 
The milk-and-water people will find fault with him, but he is 
a noble fellow, and ought to be backed up by every genuine 
Tree-trader." 

"April 11. — We are all being plagued to death with the fa-, 
natics about the Maynooth grant. The dissenters and the church 
people have joined together to put the screw upon the members. 
However, I expect that Peel will carry his measure by a large 
majority." 

" April 14. — We are still being very much persecuted by the 
fanatics ; all the bigots in the country seem to be using the priv- 
ilege of writing their remonstrances to me." 

" April 28. — I can't fix the day, I am sorry to say, when I 
shall positively see you. There is a notice of motion standing 
by Lord John Eussell upon the state of the laboring population, 
which I am almost compelled to take a part in. If I were to be 
absent, it would be construed into a slight on the Whig party. 
It stands for Friday, but I am not without hope that he may put 
it off till after the Whitsun holidays. I will learn his views to- 
morrow if I can." 

" June 19. — On Wednesday I was to speak at Covent Garden, 
and being confined all the day in the Committee-room, and hav- 
ing to prepare my speech after four o'clock, I knew I should be 
excused writing. I find it very difficult to get up my spirits to 
appear before a large audience like that at Covent Garden. In- 
deed, I feel myself to be only acting a part, in appearing to speak 
with energy, hope, and confidence. I can't go through another 
period such as the present session, to be harassed and annoyed 
as I have been in every possible way ; it would kill me. I have 

1 April 18. In twenty-five years Cobden and Mr. Bright only went twice into 
different lobbies. This was one occasion. The other concerned the expenditure at 
South Kensington. Cobden as a Commissioner for the Great Exhibition supported 
Prince Albert's policy. 



Mi. 4,1.] PRIVATE AFFAIRS. 221 

not the least idea when I shall be released from my attendance at 
the Committee. To-day we have been bored with a three hours' 
speech from a counsel, who would have nothing else to do if 
he released us from our confinement. I expect we shall have 
another week of it at least." 

" June 20. — Now I will give you a specimen of my day's work. 
Our Committee meets at twelve and sits till four. Then the 
House commences, and lasts on an average till twelve. Twice 
last week I sat till two o'clock in the House, having been un- 
der the roof for fourteen hours. Next morning I can't be down 
till nine o'clock, and scarcely have I got breakfast, and glanced at 
the Votes and Proceedings for the day, when I must start again 
for the House. You will, I think, excuse me after this, if I am 
not a very good correspondent." 

" June 24. — There never was such a case of petty persecution 
as I am enduring in this Eailway Committee ! We have been 
now nearly five weeks sitting, hearing witnesses, and listening to 
the tedious harangues of counsel about a lot of paltry lines among 
the little towns and villages in Norfolk and Suffolk. I thought 
we should have got to the end of our work in a fortnight or three 
weeks, but now we are threatened with another week or ten days. 
And the great misfortune is, that we have no power to put any 
restraint upon the tongues of the counsel, who are paid in propor- 
tion to the length of time they can waste. But I have made up 
my mind to go down to Manchester on Friday night at any rate, 
although I shall be obliged to come up again on Sunday night, to 
be here in the Committee at twelve o'clock." 

"June 26. — The meeting at Covent Garden was as usual a 
bumper, but I did not think the speaking was quite up to the 
mark. I have had a successful motion for a Commission to in- 
quire into the subject of the Eailway gauges. I moved it again 
yesterday as a substantive motion, and it was agreed to by all 
parties. It is well to do something practical in the House occa- 
sionally, as it gives one the standing of a man of business." 

Over all these busy interests hung a heavy cloud of the gloom- 
iest thoughts. Throughout the session Cobden's mind had been 
harassed almost beyond endurance by a host of dark cares ; and 
it is only by knowing what these amounted to, that we can 
measure the intensity of a devotion to public concerns which 
could sustain itself unabated under this galling pressure. The 
following extracts from letters to his brother will suffice to show 
us what was going on. At the end of the session of 1844, he had 
allowed a groan to escape him, extorted by the reports which his 
brother had sent him of the state of their business : — "I shall 
have a month or two for private business, and, Heaven knows, it 
is not before it is required. It is a dog's life I am leading, and 



222 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

I wish I could see my way out of the collar." 1 But in the recess 
of 1844, as in that of the previous year, he had been speedily 
dragged back from his own affairs to those of the League and the 
country. Throughout the spring of 1845, however, things were 
rapidly approaching a crisis from which there seemed to be no 
escape : — 

" April 7. — I shall certainly be down a week before the Whit- 
suntide holidays, so as to have at least a fortnight. The fidgets 
have so got possession of me that I cannot master them. For 
the first time I feel fairly down and dead-beaten. It is of no use 
writing all one feels. Entreat J. S. to work down the stock of 
odds and ends of cloth, and keep down everything as low as 
possible. And remind Charles again of the critical importance 
of finding something for the machinery to do in the interval be- 
tween the seasons. It is of no use your writing bad news to me. 
I can't help it while here." 

"April 18. — I do not see any difficulty in giving adequate 
attention to the business, and still retaining, ostensibly at all 
events, the same public position as heretofore. But whether this 
can be done or not, I shall of course make everything else sub- 
servient to the one point in which honor is involved. There is 
no doubt that our pattern department, so far as the home trade 
is concerned, has been a failure this spring. This is now irre- 
mediable, and it is of no use dwelling on it. But it cannot be 
overlooked in any estimate of the management at the works and 
the warehouse, and of the cause of failure." 

" May 26. — I am fixed in the Norfolk Committee to-day, and 
do not feel the least chance of being released for a week, and it 
may be a month ; and for this there is no help, for if I were to 
leave for twenty-four hours, the Sergeant-at-Arms would be after 
me." 

" June 6. — I am sorry to say it is impossible for me to come 
down even for a day. Our Committee have determined to sit on 
Saturdays, and the rule of the House precludes rne from being 
absent even for an hour. G-od only knows when this odious 
Committee will come to a close. If you should wish to say any- 
thing about money-matters, write to me. If you want a little 

temporary assistance, pray see Mr. , and give him a message 

from me to the effect that I shall feel obliged if he will try to 
get a few thousand pounds in a similar manner to the former 
transaction. 

" But when I come down after the Session, we must put our 
business upon a different footing, so as to be able to avoid 
troubling anybody. I would have written to , but really, in 

1 To F. W. Cobdcn. Leamington, 8th August, 1844. 



2ET.4L] PRIVATE AFFAIRS. 223 

my prominent position, it is a very delicate matter to write about. 
You had better, therefore, take an opportunity of seeing him 
privately, and pray beg him to treat the matter as very confiden- 
tial. I have so many vigilant foes, that a whisper about my 
credit would be exaggerated a thousandfold." 

"June, 19. — Your letters keep me on the tenter-hooks, for I 
know not in what extremity you may be placed. I am in the 
same predicament as ever. The committee will in all probability 
last a week more. To-day we have been treated to a three hours' 
speech by a counsel upon a mere fraction of the group. What 
makes it more difficult to escape is that the committee does not 
give a decision on any part until we have heard the whole, and 
consequently nobody not acquainted with the evidence already 
taken could step in to fill my place. Sir Benjamin Hall, very 
luckily for him, was pitched from his horse on his head the sec- 
ond day of our meeting, and he was excused from further attend- 
ance, and as we have nobody else in his place, and as four are the 
quorum, we can't proceed to business in the absence of one." 

" June 24. — I will try to put off any meeting of the com- 
mittee on Saturday, so as to be able to come down on Friday 
night, but I shall be obliged to be in town again on Monday 
morning by twelve. I see no end to this tedious affair. We 
have an appointment for another branch to begin on Monday. 
The truth is, the rival schemes fight for time, in order to delay 
the passing of the bills during the present session. But I will at 
all risks come down on Friday afternoon by the express train, 
which will land me in Manchester at ten o'clock, and I should 
like to have a bed at your lodgings, and there I must see John 
Brooks privately on the Saturday morning. I have turned the 
subject over in every way, and I see no other solution of it than in 
absolutely withdrawing myself from public life, first having se- 
cured such a promise of support from some of my friends as shall 
secure me from the effects of the shock. I have made up my 
mind to this, and shall not have a moment's peace of mind until 
I have fairly got out of my present false position. In fact, I 
would not go through another four months like the past for any 
earthly consideration whatever." 

A friend of Cobden's, who was engaged in the same business, 
has told me how he received a message one afternoon in the 
winter before this, that Cobden wished to see him. He went 
over to the office in Mosley Street, and found him on the edge of 
dark sitting with his feet on the fender, looking gloomily into the 
languishing fire. He was evidently in great misery. Cobden 
had sent for him to seek his advice how to extricate himself from 
the difficulties in which his business had become involved. They 
summoned a second friend to their sombre counsels. There was 



224 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

no doubt either of the seriousness of the position or of the causes 
to which it was due. His business, they told him, wanted a 
head. If he persisted in his present course, nothing on earth 
could keep him from ruin. He must retire from public life, and 
must retire from it without the loss of a day. Cobden struggled 
desperately against the sentence. The battle, he said, was so 
momentous, and perhaps so nearly won. One of his counsellors 
asked him how he could either work or rest with a black load 
like this upon his mind. " Oh," said Cobden, "■ when I am about 
public affairs I never think of it ; it does not touch me ; I am 
asleep the moment my head is on the pillow." 

A few months later the difficulty could no longer be evaded. 
In September Cobden, at the cost of anguish which we may ima- 
gine, came to the terrible resolution to give up public affairs. 
He wrote a letter, describing his position and the resolve to 
which it had driven him, to the friend who had for four unresting 
years been his daily comrade and fellow-soldier, and whose mere 
presence at his side, he once said, was more to him than the 
active support of a hundred other men. Mr. Bright was then 
travelling in Scotland. The letter found him one evening at a 
hotel in Inverness. It was the wettest autumn in the memory 
of man, and the rain came over the hills in a downpour that 
never ceased by night or by day. It was the rain that rained 
away the Corn Laws. Cobden begged of Mr. Bright to burn 
what he had written, and the injunction was obeyed. It was a 
beautiful letter, Mr. Bright has said : surely we may say no less 
of the reply : — 

"Inverness, September 20l7i, 1845. 

"My deak Cobden, — I received your letter of the 15th yes- 
terday evening, on my arrival here. Its contents have made me 
more sad than I can express ; it seems as if this untoward event 
contained within it an affliction personal for myself, great public 
loss, a heavy blow to one for whom I feel a sincere friendship, 
and not a little of danger to the great cause in which we have 
been fellow-laborers. 

" I would return home without a day's delay, if I had a valid 
excuse for my sisters who are here with me. We have now been 
out nearly three weeks, and may possibly be as much longer be- 
fore we reach home ; our plan being pretty well chalked out 
beforehand, I don't see how I can greatly change it without 
giving a sufficient reason. But it does not appear needful that 
you should take any hasty step in the matter. Too much is at 
stake, both for you and for the public, to make any sudden de- 
cision advisable. I may therefore be home in time for us to 
have some conversation before anything comes before the public. 
Nothing of it shall pass my lips, and I would urge nothing to be 



.SSt.41.] PRIVATE AFFAIRS. 225 

done till the latest moment, in the hope that some way of escape 
may yet be found. I am of opinion that your retirement would 
be tantamount to a dissolution of the League ; its mainspring 
would be gone. I can in no degree take your place. As a sec- 
ond I" can fight ; but there are incapacities about me, of which I 
am fully conscious, which prevent my being more than a second 
in such a work as we have labored in. Do not 'think I wish to 
add to your trouble by writing thus ; but I am most anxious that 
some delay should take place, and therefore I urge that which I 
fully believe, that the League's existence depends mostly upon 
you, and that, if the shock cannot be avoided, it should be given 
only after the weightiest consideration, and in such way as to 
produce the least evil. 

"Be assured that in all this disappointment you have my 
heartfelt sympathy. We have worked long and hard and cor- 
dially together ; and I can say most truly that the more I have 
known of you, the more have I had reason to admire and esteem 
you, and now when a heavy cloud seems upon us, I must not 
wholly give up the hope that we may yet labor in the good cause 
until all is gained for which we have striven. You speak of the 
attempts which have been made to raise the passion which led to 
the death of Abel, and to weaken us by destroying the confidence 
which was needful to our successful co-operation. If such at- 
tempts have been made, they have wholly failed. To help on 
the cause, I am sure each of us would in any way have led or 
followed; we held our natural and just position, and hence our 
success. In myself I know nothing that at this moment would 
rejoice me more, except the absence of these difficulties, than that 
my retirement from the field could in any way maintain you in 
the front rank. The victory is now in reality gained, and our 
object will before very long be accomplished ; but it is often as 
difficult to leave a victory as to gain it, and the sagacity of lead- 
ers cannot be dispensed with while anything remains to be done. 
Be assured I shall think of little else but this distressing turn of 
affairs till I meet you ; and whilst I am sorry that such should be 
the position of things, I cannot but applaud the determination 
you show to look them full in the face, and to grapple with the 
difficulties whilst they are yet surmountable. 

" I have written this letter under feelings to which I have not 
been able to give expression, but you will believe that 
I am, with much sympathy and esteem 
Your sincere friend, 

John Bright." 

The writer, however, felt the bad tidings lying too heavily on 
him to be able to endure inaction. A day or two later Mr. Bright 

15 



226 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845 

changed his plans and hastened southwards. Helpful projects 
revolved in his mind, as he watched the postboys before him 
pressing on through the steaming rain. When he reached Man- 
chester, he and one or two friends procured the sum of money 
which sufficed to tide over the emergency. For the moment Cob- 
den was free to return to the cause which was now on the eve of 
victory. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE AUTUMN OF 1845. 

The story of the autumn of 1845 has often been told, and it is not 
necessary that it should be told over again in any detail in these 
pages. It constitutes one of the most memorable episodes in the 
history of party. It was the turning-point in the career of one of 
the most remarkable of English Ministers. It marked the decisive 
step in the greatest of all revolutions in *our commercial policy. 
And it remains the central incident in the public life of the states- 
man who is the subject of these memoirs. 

In his powerful speech in 1844 Cobden had reminded the 
House of Commons, for men were apt to forget it, he said, that in 
Ireland there was a duty at that day of eighteen shillings a quar- 
ter upon the import of foreign wheat. Will it be believed in 
future ages, he cried, that in a country periodically on the point 
of actual famine - — at a time when its inhabitants subsisted on 
the lowest food, the very roots of the earth — there was a law in 
existence which virtually prohibited the importation of bread ? 1 
The crisis had now arrived. The session was hardly at an end 
before disquieting rumors began to come over from Ireland. As 
the autumn advanced, it became certain that the potato crop was 
a disastrous failure. The Prime Minister had, in his own words, 
devoted almost every hour of his time, after the severe labors of 
the session; to watching chances and reading evidence night and 
day, in anticipation of the heavy calamity which hung over the 
nation. By the middle of October the apprehension of actual 
scarcity had become very vivid, and he wrote to Sir James Gra- 
ham that the only effectual remedy was the removal of impedi- 
ments to import. On the last day of the month, the members of 
the Cabinet met in great haste. Three other meetings took place 
within the week. A marked divergence of opinion instantly be- 

1 Speeches, i. 164. 



jEt.4L] THE AUTUMN OF 1845. 227 

came manifest. Sir Robert Peel wished to summon Parliament, 
and to advise the suspension for a limited period of the restric- 
tions on importation. Lord Aberdeen, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and 
Sir James Graham supported this view. The other members of 
the Cabinet, following Lord Stanley and the Duke of Wellington, 
dissented. Peel did not disguise, and the dissidents were well 
aware, how difficult it might be to put the corn duties on again 
if they had once been taken off. It was felt on both sides that 
the great struggle which had been going on ever since the Whigs 
proposed their fixed duty, and in which Peel had shown so many 
ominous signs of change, was now coming to an issue. On both 
sides there was a natural reluctance to precipitate it. On the 6th 
of November Ministers separated without coming to a decision. 

A skilful enemy was intently watching their proceedings from 
the northern metropolis. On the 22d of November Lord John 
Russell launched from Edinburgh his famous letter to his constit- 
uents in the City of London. He had seen in the public prints 
that Ministers had met ; that they had consulted together for 
many days ; and that nothing had been done. Under these cir- 
cumstances he thought that the Government were not performing 
their duty to their Sovereign and their country. The present state 
of the country could not be viewed without apprehension. Pro- 
crastination might produce a state of suffering that was frightful 
to contemplate, but bold precaution might avert serious evils. It 
was no longer worth while to contend for a fixed duty. Let them 
all then unite to put an end to a system which had been proved 
to be the blight of commerce, the bane of agriculture, the source 
of bitter division among .classes, the cause of penury, fever, mor- 
tality, and crime among the people. If this end was to be achieved, 
it must be gained by the unequivocal expression of the public 
voice. 

The Edinburgh Letter was the formal announcement that Lord 
John Russell had come round to Cobden's programme, the winning 
of Free Trade by agitation. Sir Robert Peel's conversion, as 
everybody knows, was very freely imputed both at the time and 
afterwards to interested and ambitious motives. It is hard to 
understand on what ground the same imputation might not have 
been sustained in the case of the corresponding conversion of 
Lord John. The obvious truth is that they were both of them 
too clear-sighted not to perceive that events had, at last, shown 
that Cobden and his friends were in the right, and that the time 
had come for admitting it. Lord John Russell's adhesion made 
the victory of the League certain. Mr. Bright happened to be on 
the platform at a railway station in Yorkshire, as Lord John 
Russell passed through on his way from the north to Osborne. 
He stepped into the carriage for a few moments. " Your letter," 



228 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

said Mr. Bright, " has now made the total and immediate repeal 
of the Corn Law inevitable ; nothing can save it." The letter had 
in fact done no less than this. 

Immediately on its publication Sir Eobert Peel summoned his 
Cabinet. His view had been that Parliament ought to be called 
together, oh the assumption that the measure of relief which he 
was prepared to introduce would virtually compel a reconsidera- 
tion of the whole question of Protection. After the Edinburgh 
Letter he considered that this step would appear to be a servile 
acquiescence in the views of the leader of the Opposition. Still 
he was prepared to stand to his post, and to run the risk of this 
reproach, provided that his colleagues were unanimous. They 
were not so. Lord Stanley was intractable, and others in the 
Government were nearly as hostile. Thinking, therefore, that 
he should fail in the attempt to settle the question, and that after 
vehement contests and the new combinations that would be 
formed, probably worse terms would be made than if some one 
else were to undertake the settlement of the question, the Min- 
ister felt it his duty to resign. That event took place on the 5th 
of December. For a fortnight the country remained without a 
responsible Administration. 

The share of the League in this startling catastrophe did not 
escape Cobden's eye. The prospect of famine in Ireland had no 
sooner become definite, than the League at once prepared for 
action. Before the end of October, and before the first of the 
Cabinet Councils, they held a great meeting of many thousands 
of persons at Manchester, and announced a series of meetings in 
the other great towns of the kingdom. The Ministers were quite 
aware what this meant, and that they could not face it. Sir 
James Graham warned Peel that the Anti-Corn-Law ferment was 
about to commence. It would, he said, be the most formidable 
movement in modern times. There was a pause for a few days 
during the deliberations of the Government, because everybody 
expected that each successive mail would carry to him the wel- 
come decision of the Cabinet that the ports had been already 
opened. And why were they not opened ? asked Cobden. Be- 
cause the League was known to be strong enough to prevent 
them from being shut again. If there had been no Anti-Corn- 
Law League in the middle of November, the ports would have 
been opened a month ago. It was because they knew well in 
the Cabinet, and because the landlords knew well, that the ques- 
tion of total and immediate repeal of the Corn Law was at stake, 
that they were ready to risk, like desperate gamblers, all that 
might befall during the next six months, rather than part with 
that law. 1 When the Cabinets came to an end without any action 

1 Speeches, i. 328. Nov. 13, 1845. 



.St. 41.] THE AUTUMN OF 1845. 229 

being taken, then genuine alarm spread through the country, and 
the storm of agitation began in good earnest. People knew pretty 
well where the difficulty lay. They were told that it was the 
Duke of Wellington and Lord Stanley who had decided that the 
people of England and Ireland should not be allowed to feed 
themselves. Cobden went to a great gathering at Birmingham 
(November 13th). If I mistake not, he said, you have tried the 
metal of the noble warrior before in Birmingham. The Duke is 
a man whom all like to honor for his high courage, his firmness 
of resolve, his indomitable perseverance. " But let me remind 
him," cried Cobden, amid a storm of strenuous and persistent 
approval, " that notwithstanding all his victories in the field, he 
never yet entered into a contest with Englishmen in which he 
was not beaten." Even the Edinburgh Letter, in spite of Cobden's 
trust in the high integrity of the writer, did not disarm his vigi- 
lance. The letter had transformed Lord John " from the most 
obscure into the most popular and prominent man of the day." 
But the Whig party was nothing without the Free-traders. The 
Tory party was broken to atoms by the rupture among their 
leaders. The League alone stood erect and aloft amid the ruins 
of the factions. 1 

The activity of the League was incessant. Now that their 
question had become practically urgent, and an occasion for the 
fall of ministries aud the strife of parties, public interest in their 
proceedings acquired a new keenness. " I had reckoned upon 
getting home on Saturday," Cobden writes to his wife from Stroud 
(Dec. 4), " but Lord Ducie has put the screw upon us. We have 
no alternative but to sleep at his house on Saturday night, in or- 
der to attend a meeting on the afternoon at his neighboring town 
of Wooton-under-Edge. We could not resist his appeal. This 
throws me out in my plans, and I shall not see you till Wednes- 
day. We shall go up to London on Sunday afternoon to sleep 
there, and meet Villiers and others for a talk, and on Monday we 
shall go to Notts, next day to Derby, and on Wednesday home. 
The Times newspaper of to-day, which has just come to hand 
here, reports that the Government has determined to call Parlia- 
ment together the first week in January, and propose total re- 
peal! 2 If this be true, the day of my emancipation is nearer 
than I expected. But we must be on our guard, and not expect 
too much from the Government. They will attempt to cheat us 

1 Speeches, i. 349. Dec. 17. 

2 The publication of the Cabinet secret made a wonderful stir at the time. The 
Standard and the Herald denounced it as an atrocious fabrication. But the Times 
stuck to its text, and laughed at the two "melancholy prints" who had been 
"hobbling about the Corn Laws to the very last," unconscious that the repeal of 
the Corn Laws was ' ' a thing for statesmen to do, not for old women to maunder 
about." 



230 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

yet. Our meetings are everywhere gloriously attended. There 
is a perfect unanimity among all classes ; not a syllable about 
Chartism or any other ism, and not a word of dissent. Bright 
and I are almost off our legs, five days this week in crowded 
meetings." 

"Bristol, Dec. 5, 1845. — I slept last night at James Rhoades's, 
and had many kind inquiries and invitations. We had a very 
delightful meeting at Bath in a splendid Town Hall, the Mayor 
in the chair. We are having meetings every night, and I see no 
other prospect now but to run the gauntlet every night till the 
meeting of Parliament. But I hope we are getting to the death- 
struggle. Have you seen Punch with me on horseback and Lord 
John offering to hold the horse, and also as the shadow when Peel 
is opening the gate of monopoly." 

"London, Dec. 15, 1845. — We have had a good meeting in the 
City to-day. The knowing people say that they have never seen 
so large and unanimous a gathering. There is no doubt that the 
City will return four Free-traders at the next election. By the 
way, I don't hear anything decided about the decision of the Gov- 
ernment question. People begin to doubt whether Lord John 
will form an Administration after all. Some knowing folks say 
Peel will be sent for again." 

"London, Dec. 13. (To George Combe.) — Politics are like a 
magic-lantern just now, every day brings some new and unlooked- 
for change. What a righteous retribution has fallen upon the late 
Ministry ! The men who passed the present Corn Law in the 
face of starving millions in the spring of 1842 have been driven 
from power and place by their own sliding scale ! May their 
successors profit by the example ! There is still a great struggle 
before us, but we will beat the unrighteous few who wish to profit 
by the sufferings of the many." 

Two days after Cobden had been talking to the people of Bir- 
mingham in a triumphant strain about the League standing erect 
amid the ruins of the factions, he had an opportunity of measur- 
ing the estimate in which he was held by one at least of the 
factions. Sir Eobert Peel resigned on the 5 th of December. The 
Queen sent for Lord John Russell, and commissioned him to form 
an Administration. Lord John wrote two letters to Cobden on the 
same day. In the first, he gave the leader of the body which had 
shaken down a great Ministry and compelled an important revo- 
lution in policy, a provisional invitation to take one of the hum- 
blest posts in the ministerial hierarchy : — 

"Chesham Place, Dec. 19, 1845. 
"Dear Sir, — I do not expect that I shall be able to form 
an Administration. If I should, however, on this occasion or a 



JSt.41.] THE AUTUMN OF 1845. 231 

future one, I shall ask you to assist me by accepting the office of 
Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Lord Clarendon being the 
President, and the Vice-President having to represent the depart- 
ment in the House of Commons. 

I remain, yours faithfully, 

J. Bussell." 

The reader will smile at this proposal, when he thinks of the 
composition of Liberal Governments since the death of Lord 
Palmerston. The difference between then and now marks the 
decay of Whig predominance within the five-and-thirty years that 
have intervened. Cobden's reply to the unflattering offer might 
have been foreseen. There is little doubt that it would have been 
the same, even if the offer had been of a more serious kind. 

"Manchester, Dec. 20, 1845. 

" Dear Lokd John, — I feel greatly honored by the offer of the 
office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade, in the event of your 
being able to form an Administration. In preferring to remain 
at my post as the out-of-doors advocate of Free Trade, I am 
acting from the conviction that I can render you more efficient 
assistance in carrying out our principle by retaining my present 
position, than by entering your Government in an official capacity. 
Again assuring you how highly I esteem this expression of your 
confidence, 

I remain, dear Lord John, 

Most faithfully yours, 

ElCHAED COBDEN." 

This reply crossed the second note which Lord John Eussell 
had written to him on the previous day : — 

"Dec. 19, 1845. 

" Dear Sir, — In consequence of what I wrote this morning, I 
now write to inform you that I have not been able to form a 
Ministry. 

"All those who were to be my colleagues had agreed to the 
total repeal of the Corn Laws. Other differences on another sub- 
ject have caused our failure. 

I remain, yours faithfully, 

J. Eussell." 

The differences which were the cause of failure were with Lord 
Grey. 1 He objected to Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary.. 

1 The Lord Howick of the previous chapter. He had become a peer on the death 
of his father in July, 1845. The seat which he then vacated at Sunderland was won 



232 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

The intrigue, says one who was very competent to judge such 
matters, was neither contrived with dexterity nor conducted with 
temper, but it extricated the Whig leader from an embarrassing 
position. 1 Lord John Eussell's plea was not only that in face of 
the risks to be encountered unity was indispensable, but that as 
Lord Grey was among the first of his party who declared for com- 
plete Free Trade in corn, it would be unjustifiable to attempt to 
carry it without him. Viewed from this distance of time, and in 
the light of the present decline of the Whig caste, the plea, it 
must be confessed, is one of singular tenuity. No oue doubts the 
sincerity either of Lord John's attempt to form a government, 
or of his honest acquiescence in its failure. It was obviously 
much easier for Sir Eobert Peel to settle the Corn question, 
because he would have the votes of the Whigs and the Free- 
traders, as well as that of a large body, if not the majority, of his 
usual supporters. It was not certain that Lord John could have 
settled it, for the simple reason that many of the Conservatives, 
especially in the House of Lords, would have declined to follow 
him in a policy which they hardly persuaded themselves to accept 
from Wellington and Peel. 

On the failure of his rival, Sir Eobert Peel went to Windsor, 
withdrew his resignation, and returned to London, having already 
resumed the functions of the First Minister of the Crown. He 
hoped by speaking to his colleagues from the point of a definitely 
accepted position, to secure the support of thoge who had dis- 
sented from him at the beginning of the month. One at least of 
the survivors, who was in a position to know Peel's mind at this 
moment, holds it for certain that the Minister returned to town 
in the afternoon of the 20th, in full confidence that he would 
carry his party with him in the tremendous step which he had 
resolved to take. Lord Stanley withdrew at once, 2 but Peel per- 
sisted in thinking that the schism would end there. It was not 
many weeks before he found out his mistake. Thirty years after 
these events, when Peel's bitterest assailant had by a singular 
destiny raised himself to the height of power from which Peel 
was now looking down upon him, he made an interesting remark 
on a criticism that had been published upon his career. " The 

by Mr. Hudson, the Railway King, against Colonel Perronet Thompson. Cobden 
spoke with sufficient pungency of the victorious candidate soon afterwards. See 
Speeches, i. 312, 313. 

1 Mr. Disraeli's Lord George Bentinck, p. 23. 

2 Lord Stanley's place at the Colonial Office was taken by Mr. Gladstone, who 
had left the Ministry under circumstances already described (p. 219). He had 
no seat in Parliament during the important session of 1846, having resigned New- 
ark, for which he had been returned by the Duke of Newcastle. The Duke was 
one of the stoutest opponents of Free Trade, successfully using all his influence 
to secure the defeat in North Notts of his own son, whom Peel now promoted to 
the office of Irish Secretary and a seat in the Cabinet. 



^T.4L] THE AUTUMN OF 1845. 233 

writer," said Lord Beaconsfield, " fails to do justice to a striking 
distinction in my political history. The Duke of Wellington in 
passing Catholic Emancipation, and Sir Eobert Peel in repealing 
the Corn Laws, conceded necessary measures of progress, but they 
broke up the party. I passed Household Suffrage, but I kept the 
party together and brought it into power." It has often been 
contended by contemporaries with good information as to the 
jstate of things, that Peel would have been as successful as Mr. 
Disraeli afterwards was, in getting his party through an awkward 
gap, if he had only consented to call them together and had can- 
didly laid before them the political considerations on which his 
new policy was founded. Those who hold this opinion are possi- 
bly right. It is, however, easy to perceive that Peel's situation 
was distinguished by two fatal peculiarities. One was that he 
had gone through the same process before : he had already done 
by Protestantism as he was now doing by Protection ; he had 
suddenly carried out a policy of which he had been the declared 
and conspicuous opponent. It was the champion of Protestant- 
ism and the Church, who had repealed the Test and Corporation 
Acts, who had carried Catholic Emancipation, who had increased 
the Maynooth Grant, and who was believed to be meditating the 
endowment of the Irish priests. Feats of this kind do not bear 
repetition. In the second place, it was comparatively easy to 
persuade the Conservatives to assent to a lower franchise, because 
few of them in their hearts believed that any manipulation of the 
suffrage would take away from them anything which they really 
valued. Very many of them, on the other hand, did believe 
firmly that the repeal of the Corn Laws would take away from 
them their rents, which they valued extremely. Political plausi- 
bilities will reconcile men to everything, save the deprivation of 
their property. It seems doubtful then whether Sir Eobert Peel 
could under any circumstances have prevailed upon his party to 
follow him. It is not to their dishonor that it should have been 
so. The Minister was honestly convinced, but the party was not. 
Even Cobden, when looking at the battle from a distance, thought 
that it would be wrong " that the House which was elected to 
maintain Protection should abandon its pledges and do the very 
reverse." Long afterwards, when Peel's Memoirs were given to 
the world, Cobden still held that there would be " much that is 
difficult to reconcile in his conduct in this question, after every- 
thing is said and confessed that he can urge in his defence." 1 
The simplest explanation is the true one. It is a mistake to 
assume that because Peel was a great parliamentary commander, 
he had been mastered by the parliamentary vice of measuring 

l Letter to J. Parkes, May 26, 1856. 



234 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

national welfare by the conveniences of his party or the main- 
tenance of a majority in a division. A colleague of Sir Eobert 
Peel in this Administration, who has had unrivalled opportunities 
of seeing great public personages, speaks of him as the most 
" laboriously conscientious " man that he has ever known. 1 It 
was his conscience that had become involved in the change of 
commercial policy. He could, as he believed, and as he after- 
wards told Cobden himself, have parried the power of the League 
for three or four years. But he had come to the conviction that 
the maintenance of restriction was both unsound and dangerous, 
was not only impolitic but unjust. It was impossible for him to 
conceal his conviction, or to act as if it did not exist. Confidence 
in public men, he said, is shaken when they change their opin- 
ions, but confidence ought to be much more shaken when public 
men have not the courage to change their course when convinced 
of their error. But why did he not consult political decorum by 
allowing Lord John Russell to carry repeal, or at least by taking 
the opinion of the country ? 2 Because Lord John could not have 
carried repeal ; and Peel could neither see any advantage in inde- 
cision or irrational delay, nor could he admit the incompetency 
of the present Parliament to deal with that, as with every other 
object of public concern. 3 

" I have reason to believe," said Cobden afterwards, " that some 
discussions which I raised in the House with a view to proving 
that the agriculturists themselves were, as a whole, injured by 
Protection, gave him some confidence in the practicability of a 
change of policy." This may well have been so. The speech in 
which Peel announced and vindicated the new policy, is little 
more than an echo of Cobden's Parliamentary speeches of 1844 
and 1845, and this accounts for the extraordinary prominence 
which he afterwards gave in so remarkable a manner to Cobden's 
share in what was done. Peel has explained the course along 
which his mind was travelling. His confidence in the necessity 
of Protection was lessened by the experiment of ,1842. He felt 
from the first the increasing difficulty of applying to articles of 

1 "Avowing for differences in grasp and experience," he went on, "the Prince 
Consort was in this respect of the same type." 

2 Mr. Disraeli dwelt much on a certain inconsistency on this point. Peel always 
said that he felt that he was not the person who ought to propose repeal ; and he 
repudiated as a foul calumny the assertion that he wished to interfere in the settle- 
ment of the question hy Lord John Russell. But, asked Mr. Disraeli, what was it but 
your wish to interfere in this manner which broke up your Cabinet at the beginning 
of December ? As Peel expressly said that it was only the refusal of his colleagues 
to assent to repeal which prevented him from remaining in office on the platform 
of the Edinburgh Letter, Mr. Disraeli's charge, so far as it goes, cannot be satisfac- 
torily met. 

8 Tamworth Letter, 1847. For other reasons see Peel's letter to Cobden, below, 
p. 266. 



^t.4L] THE AUTUMN OF 1845. 235 

food the principles which had been applied to so many other arti- 
cles. Later experiments pointed in the same way. Certain 
important articles of agricultural produce were now admitted at 
low rates. Among these were oxen, sheep, cows, salted and fresh 
meat. A chorus of sinister prophecy rose from the injured inter- 
ests. There was even a panic. Forced sales of stock took place. 
It would be impossible to compete with the foreign grazier. 
Meat would be reduced to threepence a pound. The falsification 
-of these prophecies, as Peel reminded his constituents after his 
fall, was destined to. have a great effect on the course of public 
opinion. People began to be less apprehensive of the probable 
consequences of a more liberal intercourse in other articles of 
agricultural produce. 1 

Then he perceived an increase of consumption of articles of first 
necessity, much more rapid than the increase in population, and 
this greatly augmented the responsibility of undertaking to regu- 
late the supply of food by legislative restraints. It greatly 
aggravated, moreover, the peril of these restraints in the case of 
any sudden check to prosperity. 2 

Besides these considerations, Peel says that his faith in restric- 
tions on the importation of corn had been weakened by general 
reasoning ; by many concurring proofs that the wages of labor do 
not vary with the price of corn ; by serious doubts whether, in 
the present condition of the country, the present plenty were not 
insured for the future in a higher degree by free intercourse in 
corn, than by restrictions for the purpose of protecting domestic 
agriculture. Clear as all this is to a generation whose vision is 
not obscured by the passions of contemporaries, resentment and 
suspicion at the time were emotions that might have been 
expected. It speedily became certain that they were violent 
enough to endanger the new policy, to wreck the party, and to 
overthrow forever the great Minister who had been its chief. 

Meanwhile the League made ready to give him effective sup- 
port. Whatever may have been the case with Sir Eobert Peel 
himself, it is certain that other people were afraid of the opera- 
tions of the League. It was this confederation which kept both 
the Whig advocates of a fixed duty and the Protectionist advo- 
cates of the existing law in order. In the last week in the year 
a meeting was held at Manchester, at which it was resolved to 
raise the enormous sum of a quarter of a million of money for the 
purposes of agitation. The scene has often been described, how 
one man after another called out in quick succession, " A thou- 
sand pounds for me ! " "A thousand pounds for us ! " and so forth, 
until, in less than a couple of hours, sixty thousand pounds had 

1 Memoirs, ii. 103. 

2 Tamworth Letter of 1847, in Memoirs, ii. 105. 



236 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1845. 

been subscribed on the spot. There were twenty-three persons 
or firms who put down one thousand pounds each, and twenty-five 
persons half as much. Cobden, who was always received at every 
public gathering during this stirring crisis with an indescribable 
vehemence of sympathy and applause, addressed a few words to 
the excited and resolute men before him. "This meeting," he 
said, " will afford to any Administration the best possible support 
in carrying out its principles. If Sir Eobert Peel will go on in an 
intelligible and straightforward course, he will see that there is 
strength enough in the country to support him ; and I should not 
be speaking the sentiments of the meeting, if I did not say that 
if he takes the straightforward, honest course, he will have the 
support of the League and the country as fully and as cordially 
as any other Prime Minister." x 

At this time circumstances naturally began to work a complete 
change in Cobden's attitude towards Sir Eobert Peel. Three 
weeks before, when the Minister left office, Cobden had allowed 
the excitement of the hour to betray him into public expressions 
of exultation, which were almost ferocious in their severity. Miss 
Martineau has explained how this fierce outburst shocked some 
of his friends. They appear, as has already been mentioned in 
another connection (p. 139), to have used the friends' privilege of 
dealing very faithfully with him. Cobden had speedily become 
conscious of his error. One of those who remonstrated with him 
was his old friend, George Combe, to whom he replied as fol- 
lows : — 

" It was wrong to exult in Peel's fall, and yet the scene of my 
indiscretion was calculated to throw me off my guard, and give 
my feelings for a moment the mastery of my judgment. I was 
speaking in the face of nearly the entire adult male population of 
Stockport, whose terrible sufferings in 1841, when Peel took the 
government from the Whigs to maintain the very system which 
was starving them, were fresh in my memory. The news of the 
retirement of the Peel Ministry reached Stockport a couple of 
hours before the meeting took place. When it was announced, 
the whole audience sprang up, and gave three times three cheers. 
I was quite taken aback, and out came that virulent attack upon 
Peel, for which I have been gently rapped on the knuckles by 
Miss Martineau, yourself, and many other esteemed correspond- 
ents. It was an unpremeditated ebullition. Tell your good 
brother I will keep a more watchful guard over the old serpent 
that is within me for the future. You must not judge me by' 
what I say at these tumultuous public meetings." 2 

1 See Prentice's History of the League,, ii. 415. 

2 To G. Comtie. Manchester, Dec. 29, 1845. See Miss Martineau's Autobiogra- 
phy, ii. 259-262. 



^1t. 41.] THE AUTUMN OF 1845. 237 

The rest of this letter, describing his feelings about public life, 
has been given in a preceding chapter (p. 139). In a second let- 
ter, replying we may suppose to a request of Combe's that he 
might be allowed to show the first to some of their common 
friends, Cobden referred fiercely enough, as he had previously 
done in public, to the extremely painful incident of 1843 : it has 
been already described in its place. 1 

" You are at liberty to make any use you please of that let- 
ter of mine, and I really feel gratified and proud that you take 
so much interest in preserving for me the good opinion of those 
whose esteem is worth having. Now let me add, that although, 
as between you and myself, I am eager to avow my regret at 
having been betrayed into a vindictive attack upon Peel, although 
I admit that Christian principle was violated in that speech, and 
that I should have better consulted what was due to myself if I 
had shown greater magnanimity on the occasion, still, as between 
any other looker-on and myself, I must say that Peel's atrocious 
conduct towards me ought not to be lost sight of. I do not com- 
plain of his insinuating that I wished to incite to his assassina- 
tion, and hounding on his party to destroy me in the eyes of the 
world. His conduct might have been excused on account of his 
state of mind, from the recent death of Drummond, and the dis- 
tress and anxiety of his wife and daughter, who, I believe, 
unnerved him by their alarm for his safety. But although this 
excused him at the instant, it did not atone for his having failed 
to retract or explain his foul charge subsequently, which, in fact, 
made and now makes it a deliberate attempt at moral assassina- 
tion, which I cannot and ought not to forget, and therefore I 
should feel justified in repeating what I said at Covent Garden, 
that I should forfeit my own respect and that of my friends if I 
ever exchanged a word with that man in private." 2 

No nature was ever less disposed for the harboring of long 
resentments, and it was not many weeks from this time before a 
curious incident had the effect of finally effacing the last trace of 
enmity between these two honored men. A vulgar attack hap- 
pened to be made in the course of debate on the Chairman of the 
League, which drew a rebuke from a member who was himself 
renowned for bitterness of speech and the unbridled license of his 
imputations. Mr. Disraeli defended the original assailant by ap- 
pealing to the example of the Prime Minister, who had, if he did 
not mistake, accused a member of the League of abetting assassina- 
tion. Sir Eobert Peel immediately rose to explain that his inten- 
tion at the time was to relieve Mr. Cobden in the most distinct 
manner from the imputation which by misapprehension he had 

1 Above, chap, xii., pp. 172-175. 

2 To Geo. Combe. Manchester, Feb. 1846. 



238 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

put upon him. If any one present had stated to him that his 
reparation was not so complete, and his avowal of error not so 
unequivocal, as it ought to have been, he should at once have re- 
peated it more plainly and distinctly. Cobden followed, saying 
that he had felt, and the country had felt, that the Minister's dis- 
avowal had not been so distinct as was to have been expected. 
He was glad that it had now been explicitly made, because it 
gave him an opportunity of expressing His own regret at the terms 
in which he had more than once referred to Sir Eobert Peel. 
And so with the expression of a hope that the subject might never 
be revived, the incident came to an end. 



CHAPTEE XVI 

REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS AND FALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

The public excitement and private anxieties of the year which 
had just come to an end, had seriously shaken Cobden's health. 
Before Parliament opened he was laid up with a complicated 
affection of head, ears, and throat, the result of laborious speaking 
to great audiences in the open air or in vast halls. He remained 
liable for the rest of his life to deafness and hoarseness. All 
through the Session of 1846 he was out of health. Fortunately, 
circumstances had now taken a turn which no longer demanded 
much more from him than silent vigilance. 

A few clays after the Session opened, the Prime Minister 
announced his proposals. The repeal of the Corn Laws was to be 
total. But it was not to be immediate. The ports were not to 
be entirely open for three years. During this interval there was 
to be a sliding scale, with a maximum duty of ten shillings when 
the price of wheat should be under forty-eight shillings, and a 
minimum duty of four shillings when the price reached fifty-four 
shillings a quarter. The views of the League therefore would not 
be fully realized until February, 1849. 

The opponents of the Minister began to talk of an appeal to 
the country, and Cobden addressed himself to this critical point 
in the one speech of any importance which he felt called upon to 
make through the whole of these protracted debates. He plied 
the Protectionists with defiant tests of the national opinion. The 
petitions for repeal had ten times as many signatures as petitions 
for Protection. But, they cried, the most numerously signed were 
fictitious. Then let them try public meetings. He challenged 



jEt.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 239 

them to hold a single public and open meeting anywhere in the 
land. Then for parliamentary representation. " I ought to know," 
he said, " as much about the state of the representation and of the 
registration as any man in this House. Probably no one has 
given so much 'attention to that question as I have done, and I 
distinctly deny that you have the slightest probability of gaining 
a numerical majority, - if a dissolution took place to-morrow. 
'Now I would not have said this three months ago ; but your party 
is broken up." Four fifths of the Conservatives from the towns 
in the north of England were followers of Sir Eobert Peel, and 
not of the Protectionist Dukes. They had been for Free Trade 
all along, but they had confidence in the Minister, that he would 
do what was necessary at the proper time. But let them suppose 
that the Protectionists might have a numerical majority. What 
would be the character of the minority? It would contain the 
whole twenty members for the metropolis and the metropolitan 
county. Edinburgh and Dublin would follow London. There 
was not in all Great Britain a town of five-and-twenty thousand 
inhabitants, not even Liverpool or Bristol, which would not send 
members pledged to Free Trade. What would a majority of 
twenty or thirty men in pocket-boroughs and nomination coun- 
ties do in face of such a minority as this ? They would shrink 
aghast from the position in which they found themselves. The 
members who came up under such circumstances to maintain 
the Corn Laws from their Ripons and . Stamfords, Woodstocks 
and Marlboroughs, would not defend their views a day after they 
had found out so vast a moral preponderance of public opinion 
as this. 1 

The characteristic of all Cobden's best speeches was a just dis- 
tribution of facts as the groundwork of his reasoning, and this 
for its particular purpose was one of his best speeches. No at- 
tempt was made at the time, nor has been made since, to weaken 
his striking statement of the condition of the public mind. Even 
the Prime Minister was not prepared for such an overwhelming 
force of opinion. Towards the close of the session, when all was 
over, Peel met Mr. Bright in the division lobby and had some 
talk with him. He had no conception, he said, of the intense 
feeling of hatred with which the Corn Law had been regarded, 
more especially in Scotland. 

The first reading was carried by a majority of 337 to 240. 
But an acute observer gave Cobden what was perhaps the super- 
fluous warning, not to allow the victory to throw him off his guard. 
The difficulties were still to come, and they were very serious. 
In spite of the extraordinary position in which they had been left 
by the desertion of Peel and all the rest of their leaders in both 
1 Speeches, i. No. xxi. Feb. 27, 1846. 



240 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

Houses of Parliament, excepting only Lord Stanley, the Protec- 
tionists were undeniably strong. The bold and patient politician, 
of whom they then thought so lightly, but who was in fact the 
sustaining genius of their group, has described the steps by which 
they found new leaders and a coherent organization. Lord George 
Bentinck was not a great man, but then the most dexterous and 
far-seeing of parliamentary manceuvrers had his ear and was con- 
stantly by his side. Mr. Disraeli must be said to have sinned 
against light. His compliments to Peel and Free Trade in 1842 
prove it. Lord George Bentinck formed some views on the 
merits of Protection by-and-by, but the first impulse which moved 
him was resentment at betrayal. It is easy to say that the key 
to his action was incensed party spleen, but the emotion was not 
wholly discreditable. One day he walked away from the House in 
company with a conspicuous member of the League. With that 
amicable freedom of remark which parliamentary habits permit 
and nourish even between the stoutest adversaries, the Leaguer 
expressed his wonder that Lord George Bentinck should fear any 
evil from the removal of the duty. "Well," Lord George an- 
swered, " I keep horses in three counties, and they tell me that I 
shall save fifteen hundred a year by free trade. I don't care for 
that. What I cannot hear is being sold." This was not the lan- 
guage of magnanimity or of statesmanship, but it aptly expressed 
the dogged anger of " the Manners, the Somersets, the Lowthers, 
and the Lennoxes, the Mileses and the Henleys, the Duncombes 
and the Liddells and the Yorkes," and all the rest of that host of 
men of metal and large-acred squires whom the strange rhapso- 
dist of the band has enumerated in a list as sonorous as Homer's 
catalogue of the ships. 1 These honest worthies did not know 
much about the Circle of the Exchanges, but they believed that 
Free Trade would destroy rent, and that the League was bent on 
overthrowing the Church and the Throne ; while they saw for 
themselves that their leader had become an apostate. But this 
country, as Cobden said at the time, is governed by the ignorance 
of the country. Their want of intelligence did not prevent them 
from possessing a dangerous power for the moment. 

The majority on the first reading was a hollow and not an 
honest majority, and the Protectionists were quite aware of it. 
The remarkable peculiarity of the parliamentary contest was 
that not a hundred members of the House of Commons were in 
favor of total repeal, and fewer still were in favor of immediate 
repeal. Lord Palmerston, as Cobden wrote to a friend long 
after these events, showed unmistakable signs that he was not 
unwilling to head or join a party to keep a fixed duty, but he 
was too shrewd to make such an attempt when success was 
1 Lord George Bentinck, p. 216, ch. xv. 



,Et.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 241 

impossible. 1 In the Upper House it was notorious that not one 
peer in ten was in his heart inclined to pass the Corn Bill. If 
the Lords were to be coerced into giving their assent, it was indis- 
pensable that the entire Whig party in the Commons should keep 
together and vote in every division. It was undoubtedly the in- 
terest of the Whigs to help Peel to get the Corn Law out of the 
way, and then to turn him out. But there was a natural tempta- 
tion to trip him up before the time. 

The curious balance of factions filled the air with the spirit of 
intrigue, and until the very last there was good reason to appre- 
hend that the Peers might force Peel to accept the compromise of 
a fixed duty, or else to extend the term for the expiration of the ex- 
isting duty. No episode in our history shows in a more distress- 
ing light the trickery and chicane which some thinkers believe 
to be inseparable from parliamentary institutions. In this case, 
however, as in so many others, the mischief had its root not in 
parliamentary institutions, but in that constitutional paradox, as 
perplexing in theory as it is equivocal in practice, which gives 
a hereditary chamber the prerogative of revising and checking 
the work of the representative chamber. 

The session had not advanced very far, before other dangers 
loomed on the horizon. The Ministry was doomed in any case. 
Whether Peel succeeded or failed with the Corn Bill, nobody at 
this time thought it possible that he could carry on a Conservative 
Government in a new Parliament, and he could hardly become 
the chief of a Liberal Government. The question was whether 
and how he should repeal the Corn Law. Difficulties arose from 
a quarter where they were not expected. The misery of the win- 
ter in Ireland had produced its natural fruits in disorder and 
violence. The Ministry resorted for the eighteenth time since 
the Union to the stale device of a Coercion Bill, that stereotyped 
avowal — and always made, strange to say, without shame or con- 
trition — of the secular neglect and incompetency of the English 
Government of Ireland. Two perilous inconveniences followed. 
The first was that the Irish members, led by O'Connell, persistently 
opposed by all the means in their power every step of this vio- 
lent and shallow policy. It would have been ignoble if they had 
done less. But their just and laudable obstruction of the Coer- 
cion Bill interposed dangerous delays in the way of the Corn Bill. 
This, however, was not the only peril. The Coercion Bill laid 
the train for a combination which could hardly have been foreseen, 
but which was eventually irresistible. Cobden and his friends 
were hostile to the measure on the policy and the merits, nor in 
any case could their votes have saved the Ministry. Lord John 
Eussell and the Whigs had no objection to a Coercion Bill, of 

1 To J. Parhes. June 10, 1857. 
16 



242 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

which for that matter they have been the steadiest patrons, but 
they could not resist the temptation to pay off old scores when the 
Minister declared Coercion to be urgent, and then actually let it 
slumber for five months. 1 Lord George Bentinck discerned very 
early the elements of an invincible dilemma and a promising plot. 
If the Minister pushed the Coercion Bill, that would keep back 
the Corn Bill. If he gave the priority to the Corn Bill, this 
would prove that the Coercion Bill was not urgent, and therefore 
ought not to be supported. 

Thus, by an extraordinary and unparalleled state of political par- 
ties, a measure for which the country was sincerely anxious, which 
was confessedly required by the circumstances of the moment, 
and which the leader of the Opposition was as desirous of pass- 
ing as the Prime Minister, seemed to be in constant risk of mis- 
carrying at every moment, and was attended by every circumstance 
of embarrassment alike to supporters and opponents. The great 
disadvantage that Cobden saw in the critical state of the Govern- 
ment throughout the session was the encouragement that it held 
out to the House of Lords to delay Eepeal. This made his own 
course and that of- the League all the clearer. It was their policy 
loudly and pointedly to denounce all compromise on the part 
either of the Minister or of equivocal friends. Cobden did not 
fear that the Whigs would take means to reject the Bill, for this 
reason, and perhaps for no loftier one, that its rejection would 
afford Peel an opportunity of dissolving on the question ; and a 
dissolution, as Cobden whether rightly or wrongly believed, would 
snuff the Whigs out, obliterate all old party distinctions, " and 
give Peel a five years' lease at the head of a mixed progressive 
party." 2 He was equally puzzled to understand why Peel should 
press the Coercion Bill forward, and why the Whigs 'should show 
such eagerness to avail themselves of monopolist support to throw 
Peel out. He could only explain the second of the two per- 
plexities, by supposing that " the Whigs are hugging the delusion 
that the country wants them back in office. For my part, I 
cannot meet with anybody whose face does not drop like the 
funds at the bare prospect of the change." 

We shall see presently what Peel himself had to say to this 
idea of a mixed progressive party. Meanwhile, Cobden's dislike 
and distrust of the Whigs was as intense as ever, and even drew 

1 "We have an excellent illustration of the practice of making Ireland the shuttle- 
cock of English parties, in the fact that the Whigs who had turned out Peel on the 
principle of Non-Coercion, had not been in office a month before they introduced 
an Irish Arms Bill. The opposition, however, was so sharp that the Bill was with- 
drawn in a fortnight. This Whig levity was a match for the Tory levity which 
had declared Coercion urgent in January, and taken no steps to secure it un- 
til June. 

3 To Mr. Sturge. June 10, 1846. 



JSt.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 243 

upon him remonstrances from some of his own allies. " What are 
the old Whig party," he asked impatiently, " going to do for us 
in North Notts? 1 There is a division with under 4000 voters, 
and a strong Liberal party. It was considered Whig until the 
base selfishness of the landlords of that party led them to desert 
their colors there and in every other county upon the bread ques- 
tion. My old friend, Bean, of Nottingham, reckoned the Liberal 
party safe upon the last register, and it is improved upon the 
present one. But he, honest man, has been reckoning all Whigs 
as Free Traders. Now, however, Peel's plunge must have brought 
over some of the Tories to Free Trade, and if there were any dis- 
position on the part of the Whig proprietors to bring in a re- 
pealer, they could do it with the aid or neutrality of the Peelites. 
I look to the conduct of the Whigs in the counties as the test of 
their honesty on our question. Hitherto they have done nothing 
except to revile and oppose us. Not a county has been gained 
to Free Trade but by League money, and at a terrible cost of 
labor to the Leaguers. I invaded the West Eiding, in November, 
1844, and held public meetings in all the great towns to rouse 
them to qualify 2000 votes. Lord Fitzwilliam wrote me advising 
me not to come, as I should do more harm than good ! Had I 
followed his advice, Lord Morpeth might still have been rusti- 
cating at Castle Howard. 2 You will perhaps tell me, that the 
leaders of the Whig party can't control their old friends in the 
counties upon the Corn question. True. But then, what a bold 
farce is it now to attempt to parade the Whig party as the Free 
Traders par excellence ! I will be no party to such a fraud as the 
attempt to build up its ruined popularity upon a question in 
which the Whig aristocracy and proprietors in the counties either 
take no interest, or, if so, only to resist it. I see no advantage but 
much danger to our cause from the present efforts to set up the 
old party distinctions, and calm reflection tells me that isolation 
is more and more the true policy of the League." 3 This idea 
held strong possession of him until the day of Peel's final defeat 
and resignation. 

1 Seat vacated by Lord Lincoln. See above, p. 232 n. 

2 Lord Wharncliffe, who held the office of President of the Council, died suddenly 
in the midst of the ministerial crisis. Mr. Stuart Wortley's consequent elevation 
to the peerage vacated the seat for the West Riding. "You know" — so Cobden 
told the story three years later — "that the West Riding of Yorkshire is considered 
the great index of public opinion in this country. In that great division, at present 
containing 37,000 voters, Lord Morpeth was defeated on the question of Free Trade, 
and two Protectionists were returned. I went into the West Riding with this 40.s. 
freehold plan. I stated in eveiy borough and district that we must have 5000 
qualifications made. They were made. . . . Men qualified themselves with a view 
of helping the repeal of the Corn Laws, and in consequence of that movement Lord 
Morpeth walked over the course at the next election." — Speeches, ii. 494. Nov. 26, 
1849. 

3 To Mr. J. Parkes. Feb. 16, 1846. 



244 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

Before coming to that, it will be convenient to state very briefly 
the course of proceedings in Parliament. The motion was made 
to go into Committee on the Resolutions, on the 9th February. 
Eighteen days later, after twelve nights of debate, and after one 
hundred and three speeches had been delivered, the Government 
were successful by a majority of ninety-seven. On March 2, the 
House went into Committee On the Resolutions, and Mr. Villiers's 
amendment that Repeal should be immediate as well as total, was 
lost by an immense majority, barely short of two hundred. The 
Corn Bill was then read a second time on March 27, by a ma- 
jority of eighty-eight in a House of five hundred and sixteen ; 
and it was finally carried in the House of Commons at four o'clock 
in the morning of May 16, by a majority of ninety-eight in a 
House of five hundred and fifty-six. The Lords made a much 
less effective opposition than, as is shown by Cobden's letters, 
was commonly expected. The second reading was carried by 
two hundred and eleven against one hundred and sixty-four, or a 
majority of forty-seven. Amendments were moved in Committee, 
but none of them met with success, and Lord Stanley, who led 
the Protectionists, declined to divide the House on the third 
reading. The Conservatives acted on the policy laid down by 
Peel himself seven years before, as one of the working principles 
of the great party which he had formed — "a party which, exist- 
ing in the House of Commons, and deriving its strength from the 
popular will, should diminish the risk and deaden the shock of 
collisions between the two deliberative branches of the legisla- 
ture." 1 The battle had been fought in the House of Commons, 
and as it had been lost there, then, by Peel's salutary rule, the 
defeat was accepted as decisive. 

This is the proper place for Cobden's own story of his interests 
and occupations during that agitated session. We must not for- 
get that his private affairs had only been provisionally arranged 
in the previous autumn, and that they were as gloomy as his 
public position was triumphant. Before giving the shorter cor- 
respondence, written from day to day to his wife and his brother, 
it will be convenient to give three longer letters, affording a more 
general view of what at this time was engaging his thoughts. 

March 7, 1846. (To G-. Combe) — "I am pretty well recovered 
from my local attack ; a little deafness is all that remains. But 
the way in which I was prostrated by an insignificant cold in my 
head has convinced me (even if my doctor had not told it) how 
much my constitution has been impaired by the excitement and 
wear and tear of the last few years. The mainspring has been 
overweighted, and I must resolve upon some change to wind up 

1 Peel's Speech at Merchant Taylors' Hall in 1839. 



jEt.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 245 

the machinery, before I shall be able to enter upon any renewed 
labors. My medical friend boldly tells me that I ought to disap- 
pear from political life for a year or two, and seek a different kind 
of excitement in other scenes abroad. He talks to me of the hot 
baths of the Pyrenees as desirable for such cases ; of a low pulse, 
feeble circulation, and a disordered skin, and he speaks of a winter 
to be passed in a southern latitude. Heaven knows what I shall 
do ! But one thing is certain, I neither feel in health nor spirits 
to take that prominent place in the political world which the' 
public voice seems to be ready to demand. The truth is, I have 
gradually and unexpectedly been forced upwards, by the accident 
of my position in connection with a great principle (which would 
have elevated anybody else who had only tenacity of will enough 
to cling to it), and I feel, in the present state of my health, and 
from other private and domestic considerations, letting alone my 
mental incapacity, unable to pursue the elevated career which 
many partial friends and supporters would expect from me. But 
I am resolved to give primary consideration to my health, and to 
the welfare of those whom nature has given the first claim to my 
attentions. This, I think, no one will deny me. For I assure 
you that during the last five years so much have' I been involved 
in the vortex of public agitation, that I have almost forgotten my 
own identity and completely lost sight of the comforts and inter- 
ests of my wife and children. 

" Besides, to confess the truth, I am less and less in love with 
what is generally called political life, and am not sure that I 
could play a successful part as a general politician. Party tram- 
mels, unless in favor of some well-defined and useful principle, 
would be irksome to me, and I should be restive and intractable 
to those who might expect me to run in their harness. However, 
all this may stand over till we have really accomplished the work 
which drew me into my present position. I am afraid our friends 
in the country are a little too confident. The Government meas- 
ure is by no means safe with the Lords yet. They will mutilate 
or reject it if they think the country will suffer it. Bear in mind, 
if you please, that there are not twenty men in that assembly who 
in their hearts earnestly desire total repeal. Nay, I am of opinion 
that not one hundred men in the Commons would be more dis- 
posed for the measure, if they could obey their own secret inclina- 
tions, without the influence of outward considerations. Amongst 
all the converts and conformers, I class Sir Eobert Peel as one of 
the most sincere and earnest. I have no doubt he is acting from 
strong conviction. His mind has a natural leaning towards politi- 
co-economical truths. The man who could make it his hobby so 
early to work out the dry problem of the currency question, and 
arrive at such sound conclusions, could not fail to be equally able 



246 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

and willing to put in practice the other theories of Aclam Smith. 
It is from this that I rely upon his not compromising our princi- 
ple beyond the three years. But I must confess I have not the 
same confidence in Lord John and the Whigs. Not that I think 
the latter inferior in moral sentiment, but the reverse. But Lord 
John and his party do not understand the subject so well as Peel. 
The Whig leader is great upon questions of a constitutional char- 
acter, and has a hereditary leaning towards a popular and liberal 
interpretation of the Constitution. But his mind is less adapted 
for the mastery of economical questions, and he attaches an infe- 
rior importance to them. Nor does he weigh the forces of public 
opinion so accurately as Peel. He breathes the atmosphere of a 
privileged clique. His sympathies are aristocratic. He is some- 
times thinking of the House of Eussell, whilst Peel is occupied 
upon Manchester. They are in a false position ; Peel ought to 
be the leader of the middle class, and I am not sure that he is not 
destined to be so before the end of his career." 

London, March 12. (To Mr. T. Hunter) — " Many thanks for 
your warm-hearted letter. I have often thought of you, and our 
good friends, Potter and Ashworth, and of the anomalous position 
in which I was left when our consultations ended last autumn. 
Had it not been for the potato panic, which dawned upon us 
within a few weeks after we came to the wise decision respecting 
my own course of action, I should then have been bound by the 
necessity of circumstances to have abandoned my public career. 
That providential dispensation opened out a prospect of a speedy 
termination of our agitation, which has not been disappointed. I 
therefore made arrangements of a temporary kind for the manage- 
ment of my private concerns. This, I concluded, was understood 
by you and my other privy councillors. But the arrangement 
was only provisional ; and now that I trust we are really drawing 
towards a virtual settlement of the Corn question, my private 
concerns again press upon my attention. I am in a false situation, 
and every day increases its difficulty. My prominent position 
before the world leads the public to expect that I shall take a 
leading part in future political affairs, for which I do not feel in 
health or spirits to be equal, and which private considerations 
render altogether impossible. 

" The truth is, that accident, quite as much as any merit on my 
own part, has forced me gradually into a notoriety for which I 
have not naturally much taste ; but which, under all circum- 
stances, is a source of continued mental embarrassment to me. 
How to escape from the dilemma has been for months the subject 
of cogitation with me. My own judgment leads irresistibly to 
one solution of the difficulty, by retiring from Parliament as soon 
as the Corn question is safe. I observe your allusion to a public 



.fflr.42.] EEPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 247 

demonstration ; and the idea of a testimonial has reached me 
through so many channels, that it would be affectation to conceal 
from myself that something of the kind is in contemplation. I 
am not, I confess, sanguine about the success of such an effort, 
pecuniarily speaking, on the part of my friends. Public ebulli- 
tions of the kind never realize the expectations of their promoters, 
and there are reasons against such success in my own case. Out 
of Manchester I am regarded as a rich man, thanks to the exag- 
gerations of the Duke of Eichmond and the Protectionists. 

"But, besides, there are others who have as good claims as 
myself upon public consideration for the labors given to the good 
cause. I have been often pained to see that my fame, both in 
England and on the Continent, has eclipsed that of my worthy 
fellow-laborers. But it would be an injustice which neither I nor 
the public voice would sanction, if I were to reap all the substan- 
tial fruits of our joint exertions, to the exclusion of others whose 
sacrifices and devotion have. hardly been second to my own. 

" As respects my own feelings on the subject of a testimonial, 
although I see it in a different light after the work is done to that 
in which I viewed it before, still, I must confess that it is not 
otherwise than a distasteful theme. Were I a rich man, or even 
in independent circumstances, I could not endure the thoughts of 
it. But when I think of my age, and the wear and tear of my 
constitution, and reflect upon the welfare of those to whom 
Nature has given the first, and for them the only, claims upon my 
consideration, I do not feel in a position to give a chivalrous 
refusal to any voluntary public subsidy. Like the poor apothe- 
cary, my poverty and not my will consents. Still, consulting my 
own feelings, I should like to be out of Parliament before any 
demonstration were made. I could hardly explain why I should 
prefer this, it is so peculiarly a matter of feeling. It is not with 
a view to escape from public usefulness hereafter. I am aware 
that success in my Free Trade labors will invest me with some 
moral power, which, after my health was thoroughly wound up 
again for a renewed effort, I should feel anxious to bring to bear 
upon great, questions for the benefit of society. But I have a 
strong and instinctive feeling that an interregnum in my public 
life would rather increase than diminish my power of usefulness. 
Besides and independent of considerations of health, I am not 
anxious to be a party in any more political arrangements during 
the next year or two. Assuming even that the public placed me 
in a new position, free from anxieties of a private kind, still I 
should shrink from undertaking the office of a party politician. 
I do not think I should make a useful partisan, unless in the 
advancement of a defined and simple, principle. Now the next 
year will witness a destruction of old, and a combination of new 



248 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

parties, to which I should be called upon to give support, and 
probably invited to take office. Official life would not suit me. 
My only path to public usefulness is in pursuing the same inde- 
pendent course as respects parties which I have hitherto followed. 
I am aware that others might take a different view ; but still no 
one can be so fair a judge as myself of that which involves a 
knowledge of my own aptitude, springing from private tastes and 
feelings. 

" I might add as a motive for leaving Parliament, a growing 
dislike for House of Commons life, and a distaste for mere party 
political action. But this applies to my present views only in as 
far as it affects my health and temporary purposes. It is a re- 
pugnance which might and ought to be overcome for the sake of 
usefulness ; and there are enough good men in Parliament who 
sacrifice private convenience for public good, to compensate for 
the society of the herd who are brought there for inferior objects. 

" I have now poured out my inward thoughts to you in unre- 
served confidence — thoughts which have not been committed to 
paper before. And I do it with the fullest satisfaction, for I 
know that, whilst you sympathize with my feelings, you will 
bring a cool judgment to my assistance. I may add that it is 
premature yet to consider the struggle at an end. The Lords are 
not yet decided what to do with the Government measure. There 
are rumors still of an attempt to compromise. It is reported that 
Lord Fitzwilliam is returning from Italy to head a fixed-duty 
party, and there is still a strong body in the Commons anxious foii 
such a course. In fact there are not a hundred men in the Com- 
mons, or twenty in the Lords, who at heart are anxious for total 
repeal. They are coerced by the out-of-doors opinion, and noth- 
ing but the dread of the League organization enables Peel to 
persevere. But for our forty-shilling freehold bludgeons, the aris- 
tocracy would have resisted the Government measure almost to a 
man. My strongest hopes centre in Peel. I have far more con- 
fidence in him than the Whig leaders. He is acting from strong 
convictions. He understands politico-economical questions better 
than Lord John, and attaches far more importance to scmnd princi- 
ples in practical legislation. He and Sir James Graham make no 
secret of their determination to stand or fall by their measure. 
Such being their decision, the only delay that can take place is in 
the event of a dissolution ; and I think the Lords will shrink from 
such a desperate and fruitless alternative when the critical mo- 
ment arrives." 

April 2. ( „ ). — " So far as I can control my future course 
of action, I am prepared to do so ; and the first step which duty 
requires is to place myself in a private position at the earliest 
moment when I can make the change, without sacrificing the 



JEr.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 249 

public interest which is to some extent involved in my person. 
In fact I should have long ago retired into private life, but for 
this consideration. It is still a little uncertain when we shall es- 
cape from the tenter-hooks of delay. Even if the Lords pass the 
Government measure without attempts at mutilation, of which, 
by the way, I am still not so sanguine as many people, then it 
will be two months yet before the royal hand can reach the Act 
for the total repeal of the Corn Law. Should the Peers attempt to 
compromise, I have reason to feel satisfied that the Government 
will be firm ; and then we may possibly have a dissolution. A 
sharp struggle in the country would in all probability be followed 
by total and immediate repeal, carried with a high hand. But, 
assuming the most probable event, viz. that the Lords do pass 
the Bill, then my mind is made up to accept the Chiltern Hun- 
dreds the day after it receives the royal assent. 

" Now, my dear sir, the rest must be left to the chapter of fate, 
and I shall be prepared to meet it, come what may. This de- 
cision is entirely the result of my own cogitations. I have con- 
sulted nobody. If the rumor got abroad amongst my friends, I 
should be persecuted with advice or remonstrance, to which I 
should be expected to give answers involving explanations pain- 
ful to me. And it is quite marvellous how apt the newspapers 
are to get raw material enough for an on dit if a man suffers his 
plans to go beyond his own bosom. I could, of course, make my 
health honestly the plea for leaving Parliament, and can show, if 
need be, the advice of the first medical men in London and Edin- 
burgh to justify me in seeking at least a twelvemonth's relaxation 
from public life. 

" I have thus given you an earnest of my determination to do 
all that I can to acquit myself of my private as well as public 
duties. It has always been to me a spectacle worthy of reproach 
to see a man sacrificing the welfare of his own domestic circle to 
the cravings of a morbid desire for public notoriety. And God, 
who knows our hearts, will free me from any such unworthy mo- 
tives. I was driven along a groove by accident, too fast and too 
far to retreat with honor or without the risk of some loss to the 
country ; but the happiest moment of my life will be that which 
releases me from the conflicting sense of rival duties, by restoring 
me again to private life." 

A few days later he wrote to Mr. Edmund Potter : — 

" Many thanks for your friendly letter. Though I appreciate 
your kindness even where it restrains you from writing to me, let 
me assure you that your handwriting always gives me pleasure. 
You would not doubt it, if you could have a peep at the letters 
which pour in upon me. I have sometimes thought of giving 
"William Chambers a hint for an amusing paper in his journal 



250 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

upon the miseries of a popular man. First, half the mad people 
in the country who are still at large, and they are legion, address 
their incoherent ravings to the most notorious man of the hour. 
Next, the kindred tribe who think themselves poets, who are more 
difficult than the mad people to deal with, send their doggerel and 
solicit subscriptions to their volumes, with occasional requests to 
be allowed to dedicate them. Then there are the Jeremy Diddlers 
who begin their epistles with high-flown compliments upon my 
services to the millions, and always wind up with a request that 
I will bestow a trifle upon the individual who ventures to lay his 
distressing case before me. To add to my miseries, people have 
now got an idea that I am influential with the Government, and 
the small place-hunters are at me. Yesterday a man wrote from 
Yorkshire, wanting the situation of a gauger, and to-day a person 
in Herts requests me to procure him a place in the post-office. 
Then there are all the benevolent enthusiasts who have their pet 
reforms, who think that because a man has sacrificed himself in 
mind, body, and estate in attempting to do one thing, he is the 
very person to do all the rest. These good people dog me with 
their projects. Nothing in their eyes is impossible in my hands. 
One worthy man calls to assure me that I can reform the Church 
and unite the Wesleyans with the Establishment. 

" That zealous and excellent educationalist, Stone, of Glasgow, 
seized upon me yesterday. ' I have often thought,' said he, ' that 
Lord Ashley or Mr. Colquhoun was the man to carry a system of 
National Education through Parliament. But they have not moral 
courage ; if you will take it in hand, in less than four years you 
will get a vote of twenty millions, and reconcile all the religious 
parties to one uniform system of religious education.' I replied 
that I had tried my hand on a small scale in the attempt to unite 
the sects in Lancashire in 1836, but that I took to the repeal of 
the Corn Laws as light amusement compared with the difficult 
task of inducing the priests of all denominations to agree to suffer 
the people to be educated. The next time I meet Dickens or 
Jerrold, I shall assuredly give them a hint for a new hero of the 
stage or the novel, ' The Popular Man.' 

" In answer to your kind inquiries after my health, I am happy 
to say I am pretty free from any physical ailment. It is only in 
my nervous system that I am out of sorts. The last two or three 
months have kept me on the rack, and worried me more than the 
last seven years of agitation. But if I could get out of the tread- 
mill, and with a mind at ease take a twelvemonth's relaxation 
and total change of scene and climate as far off as Thebes or Per- 
sepolis, where there are no post-offices, newspapers, or politicians, 
I see no reason why I should not live to seventy ; for I have faith 
in my tough and wiry body and a temperament naturally cool and 



MtA2.~] repeal of the corn laws. 251 

controllable, excepting when my mind is harassed as it has been 
by circumstances connected with my private concerns, which I 
could not grapple with and master, solely because I was chained to 
another oar." 

The extracts that now follow are from letters to Mrs. Cobden, 
except in the few cases where a footnote gives the name of some 
other correspondent : — 

"London, Jan. 23. — Peel's speech last night x would have done 
capitally for Covent Garden Theatre, and Lord Francis Egerton's 
would have been a capital address from the chair if he had filled 
George Wilson's place. The Tories are in a state of frantic excite- 
ment, and the Carlton Club is all in confusion. Nobody knows 
his party. I have no doubt Peel will do our work thoroughly, or 
fall in the attempt. He will be able to carry his measure easily 
through the Commons, with the aid of the Opposition, but I have 
my suspicions that the Lords will throw it out and force a dissolu- 
tion. Whatever happens, I can see a prospect of my emancipa- 
tion at no distant date. I am going to-morrow to Windsor, to 
spend the Sunday with Mr. Grote." 

"Jan. 26. — I spent yesterday at Grote's about four miles from 
Slough, and met Senior the political economist, Parkes, and Lum- 
ley the lessee of the Italian Opera. We had a long walk of nearly 
twelve miles round the country, and for want of training I find 
myself like an old posting-horse to-day, stiff and foot-sore. . . . 
There are reports to-day of some resignations about the Court, but 
I don't hear of anybody of consequence who is abandoning Peel. 
Still there is no knowing what to-morrow may bring forth. We 
hear nothing as to the details of Peel's plan to-morrow, for which 
we are all looking with great anxiety. But the report is still that 
he intends to go the whole hog. A very handsome gold snuff-box 
has just been presented to me by Mr. Collett, the member for 
Athlone." 

" Jan. 28. — Peel is at last delivered, but I hardly know whether 
to call it a boy or a girl. Something between the two, I believe. 
His corn measure makes an end of all corn laws in 1849, and in 
the mean time- it is virtually a fixed duty of 4s. He has done 
more than was expected from him, and all but the right thing. 
Whether it will satisfy our ardent friends in the north is the ques- 
tion. Let me know all the gossip you hear about it. I abstained 
from saying a word in the House because I did not wish to com- 
mit myself, and I dissuaded Villiers and the rest of the Leaguers 
from speaking. It was too good a measure to be denounced, and 
not quite good enough for unqualified approbation, and therefore I 
thought it best to be quiet. To-day I have attended a meeting at 

1 Announcing the necessity of a new commercial system. 



252 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

Lord John's of the leaders of the Whig party. They seemed dis- 
posed to co-operate with Peel. But Villiers will bring on his 
motion for total and immediate repeal, and when that is lost we 
must do the best we can. The measure will pass the Commons 
with a very large majority, some people say seventy to one hun- 
dred, but the question still is what will be done in the Lords ? I 
asked Lord John to-day what he thought the Peers would do with 
the Bill, and he says if Lord Stanley heads the Protectionists they 
will reject it, but that the Lords will not put themselves under the 
Dukes of Eichmond and Buckingham. I hear that Lord Stanley 
is not for fighting the battle of Monopoly. So much for the great 
question." 

"Jan. 29. 1 ' — My own opinion is that we should not be justified 
in the eyes of the country if we did anything in the House to ob- 
struct the measure, and I doubt whether any such step out of doors 
would be successful. In the House, Villiers will bring on his 
motion for total and immediate repeal, and I shall not be surprised 
if it were successful simply on agricultural grounds by our being 
able to demonstrate unanswerably that it is better for farmers and 
landowners to have the change at once rather than gradually. 
But we should have no chance on any other than agricultural 
grounds. To make the appeal from the manufacturing districts 
simply on the plea of justice to the consumers, would not have much 
sympathy here or elsewhere, and would have no effect upon 
Parliament while the question is merely one of less than three 
years' time. Therefore, while I would advise you to petition for 
the whole measure, I can't say I think any great demonstration as 
against Peel's compromise would have much sympathy elsewhere. 
Understand, I would not shift a hair's-breadth from our ground, 
but what I mean strongly to impress on you is my belief that any 
attempt at a powerful agitation against Peel's compromise would 
be a failure. And I should not like the League Council to take a 
step which did not at once receive a national support. For myself 
in the House I will undertake to prove unanswerably that it would 
be just to all, and especially politic for the agriculturists, to make 
the repeal immediate, but if we fail on Villiers's motion to carry 
the immediate, I shall give my unhesitating support to Peel, and 
I will not join Whigs or Protectionists in any factious plan for 
tripping up his heels. I can't hold any different language from 
this out of doors, and therefore can hardly see the use of a public 
meeting till the measure comes on in Parliament." 

"Feb. 9. 2 — The Queen's doctor, Sir James Clark (a good Leaguer 
at heart), has written to offer to pay me a friendly visit, and talk 
over the state of my constitution, with a view to advise me how to 

i To Geo. Wilson. 2 To F. W. Cobden. 



jEt.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 253 

unstring the bow. He wrote me a croaking warning letter more 
than a year ago. As it is possible there may be a paragraph in 
some newspaper alluding to my health, I thought it best to let you 
know in case of inquiry. But don't write me a long dismal letter 
in return, for I can't read them, and it does no good. If Charles 
could come up for a week with a determination to work and think, 
he might help me with my letters, but he will make my head worse 
if he requires me to look after him, and so you must say plainly." 

"London, Feb. 19. 1 — Your letter has followed me here. ^Peel's 
declaration in the House that he will adopt immediate repeal if 
it is voted by the Commons, seems to me to remove all difficulty 
from Villiers's path ; he can now propose his old motion without 
the risk of doing any harm evei* if he should not succeed. As 
respects the future course of the League, the less that is said now 
about it publicly the better. If Peel's measure should become 
law, then the Council will be compelled to face the question, 
' What shall the League do during the three years ? ' It has struck 
me that under such circumstances we might absolve the large 
subscribers from all further calls, put the staff of the League on a 
peace footing, and merely keep alive a nominal organization to 
prevent any attempt to undo the good work we have effected. 
Not that I fear any reaction. On the contrary, I believe the pop- 
ularity of Pree Trade principles is only in its infancy, and that it 
will every year take firmer hold of the head and heart of the com- 
munity. But there is perhaps something due to our repeated 
pledges that we will not dissolve until the corn laws are entirely 
abolished. In any case the work will be effectually finished 
during this year, provided the League preserve its firm and united 
position ; and it is to prevent the slightest appearance of disunion 
that I would avoid now talking in public about the future course 
of the League. It is the League, and it only, that frightens the 
peers. It is the League alone which enables Peel to repeal the 
law. But for the League the aristocracy would have hunted Peel 
to a premature grave, or consigned him like Lord Melbourne to 
a private station at the bare mention of total repeal. We must 
hold the same rod over the Lords until the measure is safe ; after 
that I agree with you in thinking that it matters little whether 
the League dies with honors, or lingers out a few years of inglori- 
ous existence." 

" March 6. 2 — Nobody knows to this day what the Lords will 
do, and I believe all depends upon their fears of the country. If 
there was not something behind corn which they dread even still 
more, I doubt if they would ever give up the key of the bread 
basket. They would turn out Peel with as little ceremony as 

1 To H. Ashworth. 2 To F. W. Cobden. 



254 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

they would dismiss a groom or keeper, if he had not the League 
at his back. It is strange to see the obtuseness of such men as 
Hume, who voted against Villiers's motion to help Peel. I have 
reason to know that the latter was well pleased at the motion, 
and would have been glad if we had had a larger division. It 
helps Peel to be able to point to something beyond, which he 
does not satisfy. I wish we were out of it." 

"March 25. 1 — I have received the notes. Moffatt mentioned 
to me the report in the city to which you refer. There is no help 
for these things, and the only wonder is that we have escaped so 
well. If you can keep this affair in any way afloat till the present 
corn measure reaches the Queen's hands, I will solve the difficulty, 
by cutting the Gordian knot, or rather the House ; and the rest 
must take its chance. I don't think I shall speak in this debate. 
It does no earthly good, and only wastes time. People are not 
likely to say I am silent because I can't answer Bentinck and Co. 
The bill would be out of the Commons, according to appearances, 
before Easter." 

" March 30. — We are uncertain which course will be taken by 
the Government to-night, whether the Corn or Coercion Bill is to 
be proceeded with. If the latter, I fear we shall not make another 
step with the corn question before Easter. I don't like these 
delays." 

" April 4. — It is my present intention to come home next 
Thursday unless there is anything special coming on that evening, 
which I don't think very likely. It happens most unluckily that 
the Government has forced on the Coercion Bill to the exclusion 
of corn, for owing to the pertinacious delay thrown in the way of 
its passing by the Irish members, I don't expect it will be read 
the first time before Easter, and as for corn there is no chance of 
hearing of it again till after the holidays. I wish to God we were 
out of the mess." 

" April 6. — We are still in the midst of our Irish squabble, 
and there is no chance of getting upon corn again before Easter. 
It is most mortifying this delay, for it gives the chance of the 
chapter of accidents to the enemy." 

"April 23. — We are still in as great suspense as ever about 
the next step in the Corn Bill. The Irishmen threaten to delay 
us till next Friday week at least. But I hear that the general 
opinion is that the postponement will be favorable to the success 
of the measure in the Lords." 

"April 25. — You will receive a Times by the post containing 
an amusing account of a flare-up in the House between Disraeli 
and Peel respecting some remarks of mine. You will also see 

1 To F. W. Cobden. 



.Et.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 255 

that one of the Irish patriots has been trying to play us false 
about corn. But I don't find that the bulk of the liberal Irish 
members are inclined to any overt act of treachery, although I 
fear that many are in their hearts averse to our repeal." 

"April 27. — Last Saturday I dined at Lord Monteagle's, and 

took Lady into dinner, and really I must say I have not for 

five years met with a new acquaintance so much to my taste. I 
met there young Gough, son of Lord Gough, the hero of the 
Sutlej, and had some interesting private talk with him about 
the doings of his father. We are going on again to-.night with 
the Coercion Bill, and there seems to be a prospect of the Irish 
repealers pursuing a little more conciliatory course towards us. 
I hear that my speech on Friday is considered to have been very 
judicious, inasmuch as I spoke soft words, calculated to turn aside 
the wrath of the Irishmen. They are a very odd and unmanage- 
able set, and I fear many of the most liberal patriots amongst 
them would, if they could find an excuse, pick a quarrel with us 
and vote against Free Trade, or stay away. They are landlords, 
and like the rest afraid of rent." 

"April 29. — I have three letters from you, but must not 
attempt now to give you a long reply. We are meeting this 
morning as usual on a Wednesday, at twelve o'clock till six in the 
House, and I have therefore little time for my correspondence. 

The Factory Bill is coming on which I wish to attend to 

You may tell our League friends that I begin to see daylight 
through the fog in which we have been so long enveloped. 
O'Connell tells me that we shall certainly divide upon the first 
reading of the Coercion Bill on Friday. That being out of the 
way, we shall go on to Corn on Monday, and next week will I 
trust see the Bill fairly out of the House. The general opinion 
is that the delay has been favorable to our prospects in the 
Lords." 

" May 2. — The Corn measure comes on next Monday, and will 
continue before the House till it passes. Some people seem to 
expect that it will get out of our hands on Friday next. I still 
hear more and more favorable reports of the probable doings in 
the Lords." 

" May 8. — The fact is we are here in a dead state of suspense; 
not quite certain what will be our fate in the Lords, and yet every 
day trying to learn something new, and still left in the same doubt. 
It is now said that we shall pass the third and last reading of the 
Bill in the Commons on Tuesday next. Then it will go up to 
the Lords, where the debates will be much shorter, for the Peers 
have no constituents to talk to. Lord Ducie says he thinks there 
will be only two nights' debates upon the second reading. Still 
I am told the Queen's assent cannot be given to the measure 



256 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

before the middle of June, and very likely not till the 20th. I 
dined last Saturday at Labouchere's, in Belgrave Square, and sat 

beside Lady , a very handsome, sprightly, and unaffected 

dame. There was some very good singing after dinner. I have 
been obliged to mount a white cravat at these dinner-parties 
much against my will, but I found a black stock was quite out of 
character. So you see I am getting on." 

"May 11. — I have been running about, sight-seeing, the last 
day or two. On Saturday I went to the Horticultural Society's 
great flower-show at Chiswick. It was a glorious day, and a most 
charming scene. How different from the drenching weather you 
and I experienced there." 

"May 13. — I am sorry to say I see no chance of a division on 
the Corn Bill till Saturday morning at one or two o'clock, and 
that has quite thrown me out in my calculations about coming 
down. I fear I shall not be able to see you for a week or two 
later. The Factory Bill, upon which I must speak and vote, is 
before the House, and it is impossible to say when the division 
will take place. I have two invitations for dinner on Saturday, 
one to Lord Fitz William's, and the other to Lord and Lady John 
Russell, and if I remain over that day, I shall prefer the latter, as 
I have twice refused invitations from them. I assure you I 
would rather find myself taking tea with you, than dining with 
lords and ladies. Do not trouble yourself to write to me every 
day. I don't wish to make it a task. But tell me all the gossip." 

"May 15. 1 — There is at last a prospect of reading the Bill a 
third time, to-night. The Protectionists promise fairly enough, 
but I have seen too much of their tactics to feel certain that they 
will not have another adjournment. There is a revival of rumors 
again that the Lords will alter the Bill in committee, and attempt 
a fixed-duty compromise, or a perpetuation of the reduced scale. 
It is certain to pass the second reading by a majority of thirty or 
forty, but it is not safe in the committee, where proxies don't 
count. I should not now be able to leave town till the end of 
the month, when I shall take a week or ten days for the Whit- 
suntide recess." 

"May 16. — I last night had the glorious privilege of giving a 
vote in the majority for the third reading of the bill for the total 
repeal of the Corn Law. The Bill is now out of the House, and 
will go up to the Lords on Monday. I trust we shall never hear 
the name of ' Corn ' again in the Commons. There was a good 
deal of cheering and waving of hats when the Speaker had put 
the question, ' that this bill do now pass.' Lord Morpeth, Macau- 
lay, and others came and shook hands with me, and congratulated 

1 To F. W. Cobden. 



JSr.42.] REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. 257 

me on the triumph of our cause. I did not speak, simply for the 
reason that I was afraid that I should give more life to the debate, 
and afford an excuse for another adjournment ; otherwise I could 
have made a telling and conciliatory appeal. Villiers tried to 
speak at three o'clock this morning, but I did not think he took 
the right tone. He was fierce against the Protectionists, and only 
irritated them, and they would n't hear him. The reports about 
the doings in the Lords are still not satisfactory or conclusive. 
Many people fear still that they will alter the measure with a 
view to a compromise. But I hope we shall escape any further 

trouble upon the question I feel little doubt that I shall 

be able to pay a visit to your father at Midsummer. At least 
nothing but the Lords throwing back the Bill upon the country 
could prevent my going into Wales at the time, for I shall confi- 
dently expect them to decide one way or another by the 15th of 
June. I shall certainly vote and speak against the Factory Bill 
next Friday." 

"May 18. — We are so beset by contradictory rumors, that I 
know not what to say about our prospects in the Lords. Our good, 

conceited friend told me on Wednesday that he knew the 

Peers would not pass the measure, and on Saturday he assured 
me that they would. And this is a fair specimen of the way in 
which rumors vary from day to day. This morning Lord Mont- 
eagie called on me, and was strongly of opinion that they would 
' move o.n, and not stand in people's way.' A few weeks will 
now decide the matter one way or another. I think I told you 
that 1 dined at Moffat's last Wednesday. As usual he gave us a 
first-rate dinner. After leaving Moffat's at eleven o'clock, I went 

to a squeeze at Mrs. . It was as usual hardly possible to get 

inside the drawing-room doors. I only remained a quarter of an 
hour and then went home. On Saturday I dined at Lord and 
Lady John's, and met a select party, whose names I see in to-day's 
papers. ..... I am afraid if I associate much with the aristoc- 
racy, they will spoil me. I am already half seduced by the fasci- 
nating ease of their parties." 

"May 19. 1 — I received your letters with the enclosures. We 
are still on the tenter-hooks respecting the conduct of the Lords. 
There is, however, one cheering point : the majority on the sec- 
ond reading is improving in the stock-books of the whippers-in. 
It is now expected that there will be forty to fifty majority at the 
second reading. This will of course give us a better margin for 
the committee. The Government and Lord John (who is very 
anxious to get the measure through) are doing all they can to 
insure success. The ministers from • Lisbon, Florence, and other 

1 To F. W. Cobden. 
17 



258 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

continental cities (where they are Peers) are coming home to 
vote in committee. Last night was a propitious beginning in the 
Lords. The Duke of Eichmond was in a passion, and his tone 
and manner did not look like a winner." 

" May 20. — We are still worried incessantly with rumors of 
intrigues at headquarters. Every day yields a fresh report. But 
I will write fuller to-morrow. Villiers is at my elbow with a 
new piece of gossip." 

" May 20. 1 — I have looked through your letter to Lord Stan- 
ley, and will tell you frankly that I felt surprise that you should 
have wasted your time and thrown away your talents upon so 
very hopeless an object. He will neither read nor listen to facts 
or arguments, and after his double refusal to see a deputation, I 
really think it would be too great a condescension if you were to 
solicit his attention to the question at issue. This is my opinion, 
and Bright and Wilson, to whom I have spoken, appear to agree. 
But if you would like the letter to be handed to him, I will do it. 
Your evidence before the Lords' Committee was again the topic 
of eulogy from Lord Monteagle yesterday, who called on me with 
a copy of his report. Everything is in uncertainty as to what 
the Lords will do in Committee. The Protectionists have had a 
great flare-up to-day at Willis's Eooms, and they appear to be in 
great spirits. I fear we shall yet be obliged to launch our bark 
again upon the troubled waters of agitation. But in the mean 
time the calm moderation of the League is our best title to public 
support if we should be driven to an appeal to the country." 

" May 22: — Yesterday I dined with Lord and Lady Fortescue, 
and met Lords Normanby, Campbell, and Morpeth. I sat at din- 
ner beside the Duchess of Inverness, the widow of the Duke of 
Sussex, a plain little woman, but clever, and a very decided Free 
Trader." 

" M 'ay 23. — I have sent you a Chronicle containing a brief 
report of my few remarks in the House last night. . Be good 
enough to cut it out, and send it to me that I may correct it for 
Hansard. It was two o'clock when I spoke, and it was impossible 
to do justice to the subject. Count on my being at home, saving 
accidents, on Thursday to tea." 

" Ma,y 23. — A meeting of the Whig Peers has to-day been 
held at Lord Lansdowne's, and they have unanimously resolved 
to support the Government measure in all its details. There were 
several of these Whig Peers who up to yesterday were under- 
stood to be resolved to vote in Committee for a small fixed duty, 
and the danger was understood to be with them. They were 
beginning, however, to be afraid that Peel might dissolve, and 

1 To H. Ashworth. 



.Et.42.] EEPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS. ^ 259 

thus annihilate the Whig party, and so they are as a party more 
inclined to let the measure pass now in order to get a chance of 
coming in after Peel's retirement. I am assured by Edward 
Ellice, one of the late Whig Cabinet, that the bill is now safe and 
that it will be law in three weeks. Heaven send us such good 
luck!" 

"June, 10. 1 — There is another fit of apprehension about the 
Corn Bill owing to the uncertainty of Peel's position. I can't 
understand his motive for constantly poking his coercive bill in 
our faces at these critical moments. The Lords will take cour- 
age at anything that seems to weaken the Government morally. 
They are like a fellow going to be hanged who looks out for a re- 
prieve, and is always hoping for a lucky escape until the drop falls." 

" June, 13. — I have scarcely a doubt that in less than ten days 
the Corn Bill will be law. But we cannot say it is as safe as 

if carried I breakfasted yesterday morning with Monck- 

ton Milnes, and met Suleiman Pasha, Prince Louis Napoleon, 
Count D'Orsay, D'Israeli, and a queer party of odds and ends. 
The Pasha is a strong-built, energetic-looking man of sixty. 
After breakfast he got upon the subject of military tactics, and 
fought the battle of Nezib over again with forks, spoons, and 
tumblers upon the table in a very animated way. The young 
Napoleon is evidently a weak fellow, but mild and amiable. I 
was disappointed in the physique of Count D'Orsay, who is a 
fleshy, animal-looking creature, instead of the spirituel person I 
expected to see. He certainly dresses a merveille, and is be- 
sides a clever fellow." 

"June 16. — The Corn Bill is now safe beyond all risk, and 

we may act as if it had passed I met Sir James Clark 

and Doctor Combe at Kingston on Sunday, and we took tea 
together. Sir James was strong in his advice to me to go abroad, 
and the doctor was half disposed with his niece to go with us td 
Egypt. Combe and I went to Hampton Court Gardens in a car- 
riage, and had a walk there. I am afraid Peel is going out im- 
mediately after the Corn Bill passes, which will be a very great 
damper to the country ; and the excitement in the country conse- 
quent on a change of Government will, I fear, interfere with a 
public project in which you and I are interested." 

"June 18. — The Lords will not read the Corn Bill the third 
time before Tuesday next, and I shall be detained in town to vote 
on the Coercion Bill on Thursday, after which I shall leave for 
Manchester. I send you a Spectator paper, by which you will see 
that I am a ' likable ' person. I hope you will appreciate this." 

"June 23. — I have been plagued for several days with sitting 

1 To F. W. Cobden. 



260 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

to Herbert for the picture of the Council of the League, and it 
completely upsets my afternoons. Besides, my mind has been 
more than ever upon the worry about that affair which is to come 
off after the Corn Bill is settled, and about which I hear all sorts 
of reports. You must therefore excuse me if I could not sit 

down to write a letter of news I thought the Corn Bill 

would certainly be read the third time on Tuesday (to-morrow), 
but I now begin to think it will be put off till Thursday. There 
is literally no end to this suspense. But there are reports of 
Peel being out of office on Friday next, and the Peers may yet 
ride restive." 

"June 26. — My dearest Kate, — Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Corn 
Bill is law, and now my work is done. I shall come down 
to-morrow morning by the six o'clock train in order to be present 
at a Council meeting at three, and shall hope to be home in time 
for a late tea." 

By what has always been noticed as a striking coincidence, and 
has even been heroically described as Nemesis, the Corn Bill 
passed the House of Lords on the same night on which the 
Coercion Bill was rejected in the House of Commons. On this 
memorable night the last speech before the division was made by 
Cobden. He could not, he said, regard the vote which he was 
about to give against the Irish Bill as one of no confidence, for it 
was evident that the Prime Minister could not be maintained in 
power by a single vote. If he had a majority that night, Lord 
George Bentinck would soon put him to the test again on some 
other subject. In any case, Cobden refused to stultify himself as 
Lord George and his friends were doing, by voting black to be 
white merely to serve a particular purpose. But though he was 
bound to vote against the Coercion Bill, he rejoiced to think that 
Sir Robert Peel would carry with him the esteem and gratitude 
of a greater number of the population of this empire than had 
ever followed the retirement of any other Minister. 

This closed the debate. The Government were beaten by the 
heavy majority of seventy-three. The fallen Minister announced 
his resignation of office to the House three days later (June 29) 
in a remarkable speech. As Mr. Disraeli thinks, it was consid- 
ered one of glorification and of pique. But the candor of pos- 
terity will insist on recognizing in every period of it the exalta- 
tion of a patriotic and justifiable pride. In this speech Sir 
Robert Peel pronounced that eulogium which is well worn, it is , 
true, but which cannot be omitted here. " In reference to our 
proposing these measures," he said, " I have no wish to rob any per- 
son of the credit which is justly due to him for them. But I may 
say that neither the gentlemen sitting on the benches opposite, 



Mt.42.~] CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL. 261 

nor myself, nor the gentlemen sitting round me — I say that 
neither of us are the parties who are strictly entitled to the merit. 
There has been a combination of parties, and that combination of 
parties together with the influence of the Government, has led to 
the ultimate success of the measures. But, Sir, there is a name 
which ought to be associated with the success of these measures : 
it is not the name of the noble Lord, the member for London, 
neither is it my name. Sir, the name which ought to be and 
which will be associated with the success of these measures is the 
name of a man who, acting, I believe, from pure and disinterested 
motives, has advocated their cause with untiring energy, and by 
appeals to reason, expressed by an eloquence, the more to be 
admired because it was unaffected and unadorned — the name 
which ought to be and will be associated with the success of these 
measures is the name of Eichard Cobden. Without scruple, Sir, 
I attribute the success of these measures to him." 

Cumbrous as they are in expression, the words were received 
with loud approbation in the House and with fervent sympathy 
in the country, and they made a deep mark on men's minds, 
because they were felt to be not less truly than magnanimously 
spoken. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL — CESSATION OF 
THE WORK OF THE LEAGUE. 

Three days before the vote which broke up the Administra- 
tion, Cobden had taken a rather singular step. As he afterwards 
told a friend, it was the only thing that he ever did as a member 
of the League without the knowledge of Mr. Bright. He wrote 
a long and very earnest letter to the Prime Minister, urging him, 
in the tolerably certain event of defeat on the Coercion Bill, to 
dissolve Parliament. 

"76, Upper Berkeley Street, Portman Square, 
23 June, 1846. 

" Sir, — I have tried to think of a plan by which I could have 
half an hour's conversation with you upon public matters, but 
I do. not think it would be possible for us to have an inter- 
view with the guaranty of privacy. I therefore take a course 
which will be startling to you, by committing the thoughts 
which are passing in my mind freely to paper. Let me premise 



262 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

that no human being has or ever will have the slightest knowl- 
edge or suspicion that I am writing this letter. I keep no copy, 
and ask. for no reply. I only stipulate that you will put it in the 
fire when you have perused it, without in any way alluding 
to its contents, or permitting it to meet the eye of any other 
person whatever. 1 I shall not waste a word in apologizing for 
the directness — nay, the abruptness — with which I state my 
views. 

" It is said you are about to resign. I assume that it is so. 
On public grounds this will be a national misfortune. The trade 
of the country, which has languished through six months during 
the time that the Corn Bill has been in suspense, and which 
would now assume a more confident tone, will be again plunged 
into renewed unsettlement by your resignation. Again, the 
great principle of commercial freedom with which your name is 
associated abroad, will be to some extent jeopardized by your 
retirement. It will fill the whole civilized world with doubt 
and perplexity to see a minister, whom they believed all-power- 
ful, because he was able to carry the most difficult measure of 
our time, fall at the very moment of his triumph. Foreigners, 
who do not comprehend the machinery of our government, or the 
springs of party movements, will doubt if the people of England 
are really favorable to Free Trade. They will have misgivings 
of the permanence of our new policy, and this doubt will retard 
their movements in the same direction. You have probably 
thought of all this. 

" My object, however, in writing is more particularly to draw 
your attention from the state of parties in the House, as towards 
your government, to the position you hold as Prime Minister in 
the opinion of the country. Are you aware of the strength of 
your position with the country ? If so, why bow to a chance 
medley of factions in the Legislature, with a nation ready and 
waiting to be called to your rescue ? Few persons have more 
opportunities forced upon them than myself of being acquainted 
with the relative forces of public opinion. I will not speak of 
the populace, which to a man is with you ; but of the active and 
intelligent middle classes, with whom you have engrossed a sym- 
pathy and interest greater than was ever before possessed by a 
minister. The period of the Eeform Bill witnessed a greater 

1 Cobden did not know that Sir Robert Peel put nothing into the fire. He once 

said to one of his younger followers, — " My dear , no public man who values 

his character ever destroys a letter or a paper." As a matter of fact, Peel put up 
every night all the letters and notes that had come to him in the day, and it 
is understood that considerably more than a hundred thousand papers are in the 
possession of his literary executors. Some who exercise themselves upon the minor 
moralities of private life will be shocked that he did not respect his correspond- 
ent's stipulation. 



,Et. 42.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL. 263 

enthusiasm, but it was less rational and less enduring. It was 
directed towards half a dozen popular objects — Grey, Eussell, 
Brougham, etc. Now, the whole interest centres in yourself. 
You represent the Idea of the age, and it has no other repre- 
sentative amongst statesmen. You could be returned to Parlia- 
ment with acclamation by any one of the most numerous and 
wealthy constituencies of the kingdom. Fox once said that 
' Middlesex and Yorkshire together make all England.' You 
may add Lancashire, and call them your own. Are you justified 
towards the Queen, the people, and the great question of our 
generation, in abandoning this grand and glorious position ? 
Will you yourself stand the test of an impartial historian ? 

" You will perceive that I point to a dissolution as the solution 
of your difficulties in Parliament. I anticipate your objections. 
You will say, — ' If I had had the grounds for a dissolution 
whilst the Corn Bill was pending, I should have secured a 
majority for that measure ; but now I have no such exclu- 
sive call upon the country, by which to set aside old party dis- 
tinctions.' There are no substantial lines of demarcation now 
in the country betwixt the Peelites and the so-called Whig or 
Liberal party. The Chiefs are still keeping up a show of hostil- 
ity in the House ; but their troops out of doors have piled 
their arms, and are mingling and fraternizing together. This 
fusion must sooner or later take place in the House. The in- 
dependent men, nearly all who do not look for office, are ready for 
the amalgamation. They are with difficulty kept apart by the 
instinct of party discipline. One dissolution, judiciously brought 
about, would release every one of them from those bonds which 
time and circumstances have so greatly loosened. 

"I have said that a dissolution should be judiciously brought 
about. I assume, of course, that you would not deem it necessary 
to stand or fall by the present Coercion Bill. I assume, moreover, 
that you are alive to the all-pervading force of the arguments you 
have used in favor of Free Trade principles, that they are eternal 
truths, applicable to all articles of exchange, as well as corn ; and 
that they must be carried out 'in every item of our tariff. I assume 
that you foresaw, when you propounded the Corn Bill, that it 
involved the necessity of applying the same principle to sugar, 
coffee, etc. This assumption is the basis of all I have said, or 
have to say. Any other hypothesis would imply that you had 
not grasped in its full comprehensiveness the greatness of your 
position, or the means by which you could alone achieve the 
greatest triumph of a century. For I need not tell you that the 
only way in which the soul of a great nation can be stirred, is by 
appealing to its sympathies with a true principle in its unalloyed 
simplicity. Nay, further, it is necessary for the concentration of 



264 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

a people's mind that an individual should become the incarnation 
of a principle. It is from this necessity that I have been identi- 
fied, out of doors, beyond my poor deserts, as the exponent of 
Free Trade. You, and no other, are its embodiment amongst 
statesmen ; — and it is for this reason alone that I venture to 
talk to you in a strain that would otherwise be grossly imper- 
tinent. 

" To return to the practical question of a dissolution. Assuming 
that your Cabinet will concur, or that you will place yourself in 
a. position independently of others to appeal to the country, this 
is the course I should pursue under your circumstances. I w r ould 
contrive to make it so far a judgment of the electors upon my own 
conduct as a Minister, as to secure support to myself in the next 
Parliament to carry out my principles. I would say in my place 
in Parliament to Lord George Bentinck and his party, — ' I have 
been grossly maligned in this House, and in the newspaper press. 
I have been charged with treachery to the electors of this empire. 
My motives have been questioned, my character vilified, my policy 
denounced as destructive of the national interests. I have borne 
all this, looking only to the success of what I deemed a pressing 
public measure. I will not, however, stand convicted of these 
charges in the eyes of the civilized world until, at least, the nation 
has had the opportunity of giving its verdict. I will appeal to 
the electors of this empire; they shall decide between you and 
me — between your policy and mine. By their judgment I am 
content to stand or fall. They shall decide, not only upon my past 
policy, but whether the principles I have advocated shall be ap- 
plied in their completeness to every item of our tariff. I am pre- 
pared to complete the work I have begun. All I ask is time, and 
the support of an enlightened and generous people.' 

" This tone is essential, because it will release the members of 
a new Parliament from their old party ties. The hustings cry 
will be, ' Peel and Free Trade,' and every important constituency 
will send its members up to support you. I would dissolve within 
the next two months. Some "people might urge that the counties 
would be in a less excited state, if it* were deferred; but any dis- 
advantage in that respect would be more than compensated by 
the gain in the town constituencies. I would go to the country 
with my Free Trade laurels fresh upon my brow, and whilst the 
grievance under which I was suffering from the outrages of Pro- 
tectionist speakers and writers was still rankling in the minds of 
people, whose sympathies have been greatly aroused by the con- 
duct of Lord George Bentinck and his organs of the press towards 
you. Besides, I believe there are many county members who 
would tell their constituents honestly that Protection was a hope- 
less battle-cry, and that they would not pledge themselves to a 



Mt.42.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL. 265 

system of personal persecution against yourself. Some of your 
persecutors would not enter the next Parliament. 1 Now I will 
anticipate what is passing in your mind. Do you shrink from 
the post of governing through the bond fide representatives of the 
middle class ? Look at the facts, and can the country be otherwise 
ruled at all ? There must be an end of the juggle of parties, the 
mere representatives of traditions, and some man must of necessity 
rule the State through its governing class. The Eeform Bill 
decreed it ; the passing of the Corn Bill has realized it. Are you 
afraid of the middle class ? You must know them better than to 
suppose that they are given to extreme or violent measures. They 
are not democratic. 

"Again, to anticipate what is passing in your thoughts. Do 
you apprehend a difficulty in effacing the line which separates 
you from the men on the opposite side of the House ? I answer 
that the leaders of the Opposition personate no idea. You embody 
in your own person the idea of the age. Do you fear that other 
questions which are latent on the 'Liberal' side of the House, 
would embarrass you if you were at the head of a considerable 
section of its members ? What are they ? Questions of organic 
reform have no vitality in the country, nor are they likely to 
have any force in the House until your work is done. Are the 
Whig leaders more favorable than yourself to institutional changes 
of any kind ? Practical reforms are the order of the day, and you 
are by common consent the practical reformer. The Condition of 
England Question — there is your mission ! 

" As respects Ireland. That has become essentially a practical 
question too. If you are prepared to deal with Irish landlords as 
you have done with English, there will be the means of satisfying 
the people. You are not personally unpopular, but the reverse, 
with Irish members. 

" Lastly, as respects your health. God only knows how you 
have endured, without sinking, the weight of public duties and 
the harassings of private remonstrances and importunities during 
the last six months. But I am of opinion that a ^dissolution, 
judiciously brought on, would place you comparatively on velvet 
for five years. It would lay in the dust your tormentors. It 
would explode the phantom of a Whig Opposition, and render 
impossible such a combination as is now, I fear, covertly harassing 
you. But it is on the subject of your health alone that I feel I 
may be altogether at fault, and urging you to what may be impos- 
sible. In my public views of your position and power, I am not 
mistaken. Whatever may be the difficulties in your Cabinet, 
whether one or half-a-score of your colleagues may secede, you 

1 "Among other things, " Cobden wrote to Mr. Parkes, "I remember mention- 
ing the fact that Disraeli could not be again returned for Shrewsbury." 



266 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

have in your own individual will the power, backed by the 
country, to accomplish all that the loftiest ambition or the truest 
patriotism ever aspired to identify with the name and fame of 
one individual. 

" I hardly know how to conclude without apologizing for this 
most extraordinary liberty. If you credit me, as I believe you 
will, when I say that I have no object on earth but a desire to 
advance the interests of the nation and of humanity in writing 
to you, any apology will be unnecessary. If past experience do 
not indicate my motives, time, I hope, will. 

" It is my intention, on the passing of the Corn Bill, to make 
instant arrangements for going abroad for at least a year, and it 
is not likely after Friday next that I shall appear in the House. 
This is my reason for venturing upon so abrupt a communication 
of all that is passing in my mind. I reiterate the assurance that 
no person will know that I have addressed you, and repeating my 
request that this letter be exclusively for your own eyes, 
I have the honor to be, Sir, respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

ElCHAED COBDEN. 
"Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P.". 

" P. S. I am of opinion that a dissolution, in the way I sug- 
gested, with yourself still in power, would very much facilitate 
the easy return of those on your side who voted with you. 
And any members of your government who had a difficulty 
with their present seats, would, if they adhered to you, be at a 
premium with any free constituency. Were I in your position, 
although as a principle I do not think Cabinet ministers ought to 
encumber themselves with large constituencies, I would accept an 
invitation to stand for London, Middlesex, South Lancashire, or 
West Yorkshire, expressly to show to the world the estimation in 
which my principles were held, and declaring at the same time 
that that was my sole motive for one Parliament only." 



To this the Prime Minister replied on the following day, 
riting at the gree 
debate as he wrote 



writing at the green table and listening to the course of the 



"House of Commons, Wednesday, June 24th, 1846. 

" Sir, — I should not write from this place if I intended to 
weigh expressions, or to write to you in any other spirit than 
that of frankness and unreserve, by which your letter is charac- 
terized. First let me say that I am very sorry to hear you are 
about to leave London immediately. I meant to take the earliest 
opportunity, after the passing of the Corn Bill, to ask for the 



mr.42."] CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL. 267 

satisfaction of making your personal acquaintance, and of ex- 
pressing a hope that every recollection of past personal differences 
was obliterated for ever. If you were aware of the opinions I 
have been expressing during the last two years to my most inti- 
mate friends with regard to the purity of your motives, your 
intellectual power, and ability to give effect to it by real elo- 
quence — you would share in my surprise that all this time I was 
supposed to harbor some hostile personal feeling towards you. 

" I need not give you the assurance that I shall regard your 
letter as a communication more purely confidential than if it had 
been written to me by some person united to me by the closest 
bonds of private friendship. 

" I do not think I mistake my position. 

" I would have given, as I said I would give, every proof of 
fidelity to the measures which I introduced at the beginning of 
this Session. I would have instantly advised dissolution if dis- 
solution had been necessary to insure their passing. I should 
have thought such an exercise of the Prerogative justifiable — if 
it had given me a majority on no other question. If my reten- 
tion of office, under any circumstances however adverse, had been 
necessary or would have been probably conducive to the success 
of those measures, I would have retained it. They will, however, 
I confidently trust, be the law of the land on Friday next. 

" I do not agree with you as to the effect of my retirement from 
office as a justifiable ground, after the passing of those measures. 

"You probably know or will readily believe that which is the 
truth — that such a position as mine entails the severest sacrifices. 
The strain on the mental power is far too severe ; I will say 
nothing of ceremony — of the extent of private correspondence 
about mere personal objects — of the odious power which patronage 
confers — but what must be my feelings when I retire from the 
House of Commons after eight or nine hours' attendance on 
frequently superfluous or frivolous debate, and feel conscious that 
all that time should have been devoted to such matters as our 
relations with the United States — the adjustment of the Oregon 
dispute — our Indian policy — our political or commercial rela- 
tions with the great members of the community of powerful 
nations. 

" You will believe, I say, if you reflect on these things, that 
office and power may be anything but an object of ambition, and 
that I must be insane if I could have been induced by anything 
but a sense of public duty to undertake what I have undertaken 
in this Session. 

"But the world, the great and small vulgar, is not of this 
opinion. I am sorry to say they do not and cannot comprehend 
the motives which influence the best actions of public men. They 



268 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

think that public men change their course from corrupt motives, 
and their feeling is so predominant, that the character of public 
men is injured, and their practical authority and influence im- 
paired, if in such a position as mine at the present moment any 
defeat be submitted to, which ought under ordinary circumstances 
to determine the fate of a government, or there be any clinging to 
office. 

" I think I should do more homage to the principles on which 
the Com and Customs Bills are founded, by retirement on a per- 
fectly justifiable ground, than either by retaining office without 
its proper authority, without the ability to carry through that 
which I undertake, or by encountering the serious risk of defeat 
after dissolution. 

" I do not think a minister is justified in advising dissolution 
under such circumstances as the present, unless he has a strong 
conviction that he will have a majority based not on temporary 
personal sympathies, not on concurrence of sentiment on one 
branch of policy, however important that may be, but on general 
approval of his whole policy. 

" I should not think myself entitled to exercise this great pre- 
rogative for the sole or the main purpose of deciding a personal 
question between myself and inflamed Protectionists — namely, 
whether I had recently given good advice and honest advice to 
the Crown. The verdict of the country might be in my favor on 
that issue ; but I might fail in obtaining a majority which should 
enable me, after the first excitement had passed away, to carry on 
the government that is to do what I think conducive to the public 
welfare. I do not consider the evasion of difficulties, and the 
postponement of troublesome questions, the carrying on of a 
government. 

" I could perhaps have parried even your power, and carried on 
the government in one sense for three or four years longer, if I 
could have consented to halloo on a majority in both houses 
to defend the (not yet defunct) Corn Law of 1842, 'in all its 
integrity.' 

" If you say that I individually at this moment embody or per- 
sonify an idea,- be it so. Then I must be very careful that, being 
the organ and representative of a prevailing and magnificent con- 
ception of the public mind, I do not sully that which I represent 
by warranting the suspicion even that I am using the power it 
confers for any personal object. 

"You have said little, and I have said nothing, about Ireland. 
But if I am defeated on the Irish Bill, will it be possible to divest 
dissolution (following soon after that defeat) of the character of 
an appeal to Great Britain against Ireland on a question of Irish 
Coercion ? I should deeply lament this. 



.Et.42.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL. 269 

" I will ask you also to consider this. After the passing of the 
Corn and Customs Bill, considering how much trade has suffered 
of late from delays, debates, and uncertainty as to the final result, 
does not this country stand in need of repose ? Would not a des- 
perate political conflict throughout the length and breadth of the 
land impair or defer the beneficial effect of the passing of those 
measures ? If it would, we are just in that degree abating satis- 
faction with the past, and reconcilement to the continued applica- 
tion of the principles of Free Trade. 

" Consider also the effect of dissolution in Ireland ; the rejec- 
tion of the Irish Bill immediately preceding it. 

"I have written this during the progress of the debates, to 
which I have been obliged to give some degree of attention. I 
may, therefore, have very imperfectly explained my views and 
feelings,- but imperfect as that explanation may be, it will I hope 
suffice to convince you that I receive your communication in the 
spirit in which it was conceived, and that I set a just value on 
your good opinion and esteem. 

" I have the honor to be, Sir, 

With equal respect for your character and abilities, 
Your faithful Servant, 

Eobert Peel." 

It is easy to understand the attractiveness of the idea with 
which Cobden was now possessed. It was thoroughly worked 
out in his own mind. By means of the forty-shilling freehold, 
the middle and industrious classes were to acquire a preponder- 
ance of political power. It was not the workmen as such, in 
whom Cobden had confidence. "You never heard me," he said 
to the Protectionists in the House of Commons, " quote the su- 
perior judgment of the working classes in any deliberations in 
this assembly: you never heard me cant about the superior claims 
of the working classes to arbitrate on this great question." 1 Po- 
litical power was to be in the hands of people who had public 
spirit enough to save the thirty pounds or so that would buy 
them a qualification, if they could not get it in any other way. 
These middle and industrious classes would insist on pacific and 
thrifty administration, as the political condition of popular devel- 
opment. Circumstances had brought forward a powerful repre- 
sentative of such a policy in Sir Eobert Peel ; and Peel at the 
head of a fusion of Whigs and Economic Liberals would carry 
the country along the ways of a new and happier civilization. 
The old Whig watchword of Civil and Eeligious Liberty belonged 
to another generation, and it had ceased to be the exclusive cry 

i Speeches, i. 372. Feb. 27, 1846. 



270 LIFE Or COBDEN. [1846. 

of the Whigs even now. The repeal of the Corn Laws had broken 
up all parties. " I felt," said Cobden, " that I as much belonged 
to Sir James G-raham's party, as I did to Lord John Russell's 
party." x There must be a great reconstruction, and Sir Eobert 
Peel was to preside over it. 

Such a scheme was admirable in itself. In substance it was 
destined to be partially realized one day, not by Peel, but by the 
most powerful and brilliant of his lieutenants. The singular fate 
which had marked the Minister's past career was an invincible 
obstacle to Cobden's project. It was too late. All the accepted 
decencies of party would have been outraged if the statesman who 
had led an army of Tory country gentlemen in one Parliament, 
should have hurried to lead an army of Liberal manufacturers in 
the next. The transition was too violent, the prospect of success 
too much of an accident. Nobody, again, coulcl expect with Lord 
John Russell's view, and it was a just view, of Peel's long and 
successful opposition to measures and principles which he imme- 
diately took for his own on coming into power, that they should 
have been able to unite their forces under the lead of either of 
them. It would have seemed to Lord John quite as equivocal a 
transaction as the too famous coalition between Charles Fox and 
Lord North. "What he did was to offer posts in his administra- 
tion to three of Sir Robert Peel's late colleagues, 2 and this was as 
far as he could go. They declined, and the country was thrown 
back upon a Whig Administration of the old type. When that 
Administration came to an end, the fusion which Cobden had 
desired came to pass. But Sir Robert Peel was there no more. 
The power which he would have used in furtherance of the wise 
and beneficent policy cherished by Cobden, fell into the hands of 
Lord Palmerston, who represented every element in the national 
character and traditions which Cobden thought most retrograde, 
and dangerous. 

Happily for the peace of the moment, these mortifications of 
the future were unknown and unsuspected. Ten days after his 
letter to the fallen Minister, Cobden received a communication 
from his successor. 

" Chesham Place, July 2, 1846. 

" My dear Sir, — The Queen having been pleased to intrust 
me with the task of forming an Administration, I have been 
anxious to place in office those who have maintained in our recent 
struggle the principles of Free Trade against Monopoly. 

" The letter I received from you in November last, declining 
office, and the assurances I have received that you are going 

1 Speeches, ii. 507. 

2 Lord Dalhousie, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert. 



En. 42.] CESSATION OF THE WORK OF THE LEAGUE. 271 

abroad for your health, have in combination with other circum- 
stances prevented my asking your aid, nor, had I proposed to you 
to join the Government, could I have placed you anywhere but in 
the Cabinet. I have not hitherto perceived that you were dis- 
posed to adopt political life, apart from Free Trade, as a pursuit. 
I hope, however, you will do so, and that on your return to this 
country you will join a liberal Administration. 

" I care little whether the present arrangement remains for any 
long period in the direction of affairs. But I am anxious to see 
a large Liberal majority in the House of Commons devoted to 
improvement, both in this country and in Ireland. Mr. Charles 
Villiers has declined to take any office. I am about to propose 
to Mr. Milner Gibson to become Vice-President of the Board of 
Trade. 

" I remain, with sentiments of regard and respect, 

Yours very faithfully, 

J. Eussell." 

What were the " other circumstances " which prevented Lord 
John Russell from inviting Cobden to join his Government, we 
can only guess. It is pretty certain that they related to a pro- 
ject of which a good deal had been heard during the last four or 
five months. There would undeniably have been some difficulty 
in giving high office in the state to a politician whose friends 
were at the time publicly collecting funds for a national testi- 
monial of a pecuniary kind. Whether the Whig chief was glad 
or not to have this excuse for leaving Cobden out of his Cabinet, 
the ground of the omission was not unreasonable. 

The final meeting of the League took place on the same day on 
which Lord John Russell wrote to explain that he intended to 
show his appreciation of what was due to those " who had main- 
tained in our recent struggle the principles of Free Trade against 
Monopoly," by offering Mr. Gibson a post without either dignity 
or influence. The Leaguers were too honestly satisfied with the 
triumph of the cause for which they had banded themselves to- 
gether eight years ago, to take any interest in so small a matter as 
the distribution of good things in Downing Street and Whitehall. 
That was no affair of theirs. It was enough for them that they 
had removed a great obstacle to the material prosperity of the 
country, that they had effectually vindicated what the best among 
them believed to be an exalted and civilizing social principle, and 
that in doing this they had failed to reverence no law, shaken no 
institution, and injured no class nor order. It is impossible not 
to envy the feelings of men who had done so excellent a piece of 
work for their country in so spirited and honorable a way. When 
the announcement was made from the Chair that the Anti-Corn- 



272 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

Law League stood conditionally dissolved, a deep silence fell upon 
them all, as they reflected that they were about finally to separate 
from friends with whom they had been long and closely con- 
nected, and that they had no longer in common the pursuit of an 
object which had been the most cherished of their lives. 1 

The share which the League had in procuring the consummation 
of the commercial policy that Huskisson had first opened four- 
and-twenty years before, is not always rightly understood. One 
practical effect of a mischievous kind has followed from this 
misunderstanding. It has led people into the delusion that 
organization, if it be only on a sufficiently gigantic scale and 
sufficiently unrelenting in its importunity, is capable of winning 
any virtuous cause. The agitation against the Corn Laws had 
several pretty obvious peculiarities, which ought not to be over- 
looked. A large and wealthy class had the strongest material 
interest in repeal. What was important was that this class now 
happened to represent the great army of consumers. Protection 
as a principle had long ago begun to give way, but it might have 
remained for a long time to come, if it had not been found in 
intolerable antagonism with the growing giant of industrial 
interests. It is not a piece of cynicism, but an important truth, 
to say that what brings great changes of policy is the spontaneous 
shifting and readjustment of interests, not the discovery of new 
principles. What the League actually did was this. Its energetic 
propagandism succeeded in making people believe in a general 
way that Free Trade was right, when the time should come. 
When the Irish famine brought the crisis, public opinion was 
prepared for the solution,' and when protection on corn had 
disappeared, there was nothing left to support protection on sugar 
and ships. Then, again, the perseverance of the agitation had a 
more direct effect, as has been already seen from Cobden's letters. 
It frightened the ruling class. First, it prevented Peel, in the 
autumn of 1845, from opening the ports by an order in council. 
Second, it forced the Whigs out of their fixed duty. Third, it 
made the House of Lords afraid of throwing out the repealing 
Bill. 

There is another important circumstance which ought not to be 
left out of sight. One secret of the power of the League both 
over the mind of Sir Eobert Peel, and over Parliament, arose 
from the narrow character of the representation at that time. The 
House of Commons to-day is a sufficiently imperfect and distort- 
ing mirror of public judgment and feeling. But things were far 
worse then. The total number of voters in the country was not 
much more than three quarters of a million ; six sevenths of the 

1 See Mr. Briglit's speech, quoted in Mr. Ashworth's little book, p. 213. 



Mt. 42.] CESSATION OF THE WORK OF THE LEAGUE. 273 

male population of the country was excluded from any direct share 
of popular power ; and property itself was so unfairly represented 
that Manchester, with double the value of the property of Buck- 
inghamshire, returned only two members, while Bucks returned 
eleven. It was on this account, as Cobden said, it was because 
Manchester could not have its fair representation in Parliament, 
that it was obliged to organize a League, and raise an agitation 
through the length and breadth of the land, in order to make 
itself felt. 1 It was just because the sober portion of the House 
of Commons were aware from how limited and exclusive a source 
they drew their authority, that the League represented so for- 
midable, because so unknown, a force. 

The same thought was present to the reflective mind of Peel. 
Cobden tells a story in one of his speeches which illustrates this. 
One evening in 1848 they were sitting in the House of Commons, 
when the news came that the government of Louis Philippe had 
been overthrown and a republic proclaimed. When the buzz of 
conversation ran round the House, as the startling intelligence 
was passed from member to member, Cobden said to Joseph 
Hume, who sat beside him, " Go across and tell Sir Eobert Peel." 
Hume went to the front bench opposite, where Sir Eobert was 
sitting in his usual isolation. "This comes," said Peel, when 
Hume had whispered the catastrophe, " this comes of trying to 
govern the country through a narrow representation in Parliament, 
without regarding the wishes of those outside. It is what this 
party behind me wanted me to do in the matter of the Corn 
Laws, and I would not do it." 2 

Now that the work was finally done, Cobden was free to set 
out on that journey over Europe, which the doctors had urged 
upon him as the best means of repose, and which he promised 
himself should be made an opportunity of diligently preaching 
the new gospel among the economic Gentiles. Before starting on 
this long pilgrimage, he went to stay for a month with his family 
in Wales. Two days after the final meeting of the League, he 
thus describes to one of the earliest of his fellow-workers the 
frame of mind in which it had left him. 

" I am going into the wilderness to pray for a return of the 
taste I once possessed for nature and simple quiet life. Here I 
am, in one day from Manchester, to the loveliest valley out of 
paradise. Ten years ago, before I was an agitator, I spent a day 
or two in this house. Comparing my sensations now with those 
I then experienced, I feel how much I have lost in winning 
public fame. The rough tempest has spoilt me for the quiet 

1 Speeches, ii. 482. July 6, 1848. 2 Speeches, ii. 548. Aug. 18, 1859. 

18 



274 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

. haven. I fear I shall • never be able to cast anchor again. It 
seems as if some mesmeric hand were on my brain, or I was 
possessed by an unquiet fiend urging me forward in spite of 
myself. On Thursday I thought, as I went to the meeting, that 
I should next day be a quiet and happy man. Next day brings 
me a suggestion from a private friend of the Emperor of Eussia, 
assuring me that if, instead of going to Italy and Egypt, I would 
take a trip to St. Petersburg, I could exercise an important 
influence upon the mind of Nicholas. Here am I at Llangollen, 
blind to the loveliness of nature, and only eager to be on the road 
to Eussia, taking Madrid, Vienna, Berlin, and Paris by the way ! 
Let me see my boy to-morrow, who waits my coming at Machyn- 
lleth, and if he do not wean me, I am quite gone past recovery." 1 

His mind did not rest long. To Mr. Ashworth he wrote at the 
same date : — 

" Now I am going to tell you of fresh projects that have been 
brewing in my brain. I have given up all idea of burying myself 
in Egypt or Italy. I am going on a private agitating tour through 
the continent of Europe. The other day I got an intimation 
from Sir Eoderick Murchison, the geologist — a friend and confi- 
dant of the Emperor of Eussia — that I should have great influence 
with him if I went to St. Petersburg. To-day I got a letter from 
the Mayor of Bordeaux, written at Paris after dining at Duchatel's, 
the French Minister, conveying a suggestion from the latter that 
I should cross to Dieppe and visit the King of the French at his 
Chateau of Eu, where he would be glad to receive me between 
the 4th and 14th August. 

"I have had similar hints respecting Madrid, Vienna, and 
Berlin. Well, I will, with God's assistance, during the next 
twelvemonth visit all the large states of Europe, see their poten- 
tates or statesmen, and endeavor to enforce those truths which 
have been irresistible at home. Why should I rust in inactivity ? 
If the public spirit of my countrymen affords me the means of 
travelling as their missionary, I will be the first ambassador from 
the People of this country to the nations of the continent. I am 
impelled to this step by an instinctive emotion such as never de- 
ceived me. I feel that I could succeed in making out a stronger 
case for the prohibitive nations of Europe to compel them to 
adopt a freer system, than I had here to overturn our protective 
policy. But it is necessary that my design should not be made 
public, for that would create suspicion abroad. With the excep- 
tion of a friend or two, under confidence, I shall not mention my 
intentions to anybody." 

A few days later he wrote to George Combe, in a mood of more 
even balance : — 

1 To Mr. Paulton. July 4, 1846. 



.Er.42.] CESSATION OF THE WORK OF THE LEAGUE. 275 

" Your affectionate letter of the 28th of June, has never been 
absent from my mind, although so long unacknowledged. I 
came here last week, with my wife and children, on a visit to her 
father's, and for a quiet ramble amongst the Welsh mountains. 
I thought I should be allowed to be forgotten after my address to 
my constituents. But every post brings me twenty or thirty 
letters, and such letters ! I am teased to death by place-hunters 
of every degree, who wish me to procure them Government ap- 
pointments. Brothers of peers, ay, ' honorables,' are amongst the 
number. I have but one answer for all, ' I would not ask a favor 
of the Ministry to serve my own brother.' Then I am still im- 
portuned worse than ever by beggars of every description. The 
enclosed is a specimen which reached me this morning ; put it in 
the fire. 1 I often think, what must be the fate of Lord John or 
Peel with half the needy aristocracy knocking at the Treasury 
doors. Here is my excuse for not having answered your letter 
before. 

" The settlement of the Free Trade controversy leaves the path 
free for other reforms, and Education must come next, and when 
I say that Education has yet to come, I need not add that I 
do not look for very great advances in our social state during 
our generation. You ask me whether the public mind is pre- 
pared for acting upon the moral law in our national affairs. I 
am afraid the animal is yet too predominant in the nature of 
Englishmen, and of men generally, to allow us to hope that the 
higher sentiments will gain their desired ascendency in your 
lifetime or mine. I have always had one test of the tendency 
of the world : what is its estimate of war and warriors, and on 
what do nations rely for their mutual security ? Brute force is, 
I fear, as much worshipped now, in the statues to Wellington 
and the peerage to Gough, as they were two thousand years ago 
in the colossal proportions of Hercules or Jupiter. Our inter- 
national relations are an armed truce, each nation relying entirely 
on its power to defend itself by physical force. We may teach 
Christianity and morality in our families ; but as a people we are, 
I fear, still animals in our predominant propensities. 

" Perhaps you will remember that, in my little pamphlets, I 

1 The letter referred to purported to be from a lady, who, having nothing but her 
own exertions to depend upon, begged Mr. Cobden to become her "generous and 
noble-minded benefactor," to enable her to "begin to do something for herself." 
She says, " I do not see to use my needle ; to rear poultry for London and other 
large market-towns is what my wishes are bent upon." For this purpose she sug- 
gests that Mr. Cobden should procure a loan of 5000/. to be advanced by himself 
and nine other friends in Manchester, where, she delicately insinuates, he is so 
much beloved that the process will be a very easy one for him. The loan, princi- 
pal and interest, she promises shall be faithfully paid in ten years at the most. The 
writer mentions that she has her eye upon a small estate which will serve her 
purpose. 



276 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

dwelt a good deal, ten years ago, upon the influence of our foreign 
policy upon our home affairs. I am as strongly as ever impressed 
with this view. I don't think the nations of the earth will have 
a chance of advancing morally in their domestic concerns to the 
degree of excellence which we sigh for, until the international 
relations of the world are put upon a different footing. The pres- 
ent system corrupts society, exhausts its wealth, raises up false 
gods for hero-worship, and fixes before the eyes of the rising 
generation a spurious if glittering standard of glory. It is be- 
cause I do believe that the principle of Free Trade is calculated 
to alter the relations of the world for the better, in a moral point 
of view, that I bless God I have been allowed to take a promi- 
nent part in its advocacy. Still, do not let us be too gloomy. 
If we can keep the world from actual war, and I trust railroads, 
steamboats, cheap postage, and our own example in Free Trade 
will do that, a great impulse will from this time be given to social 
reforms. The public mind is in a practical mood, and it will now 
precipitate itself upon Education, Temperance, reform of Crim- 
inals, care of Physical Health, etcetera, with greater zeal than 

ever 

" Now, my dear friend, for a word or two upon a very delicate 
personal matter. You have seen the account of an ebullition of 
a pecuniary kind which is taking place in the country, a demon- 
stration in favor of me exclusively to the neglect of others who 
have labored long and zealously with me in the cause of Free 
Trade. I feel deeply the injustice of passing over Bright and 
Villiers, to say nothing of others ; and nothing but the conviction 
that I am guiltless of ever having arrogated to myself the merit 
of others consoles me in the painful position in which the public 
have placed me, of being the vehicle for diverting the reward 
from men who are as worthy of all honor as myself. But I wish 
to speak to you upon a still more delicate view of this unpalatable 
affair. I do not like to be recompensed for a public service at 
all, and I am sensible that my moral influence will be impaired 
by the fact of my receiving a tribute in money from the public. 
I should have preferred to have either refused it, or to have done 
a glorious service by endowing a college. But as an honest man, 
and as a father and a husband, I cannot refuse to accept the 
money. You will probably be surprised when I tell you that I 
have shared the fate of nearly all leaders in revolutions or great 
reforms, by the complete sacrifice of my private prospects in life. 
In a word I was a poor man at the close of my agitation. I shall 
not go into details, because it would involve painful reminis- 
cences ; but suffice it to say that whilst the Duke of Richmond 
was taunting me with the profits of my business, I was suffering 
the complete loss of my private fortune, and I am not now afraid 



JEr.42.] THE NATIONAL TESTIMONIAL. 277 

to confess to you that my health of body and peace of mind have 
suffered more in consequence of private anxieties during the last 
two years, than from my public labors. With strong domestic 
feelings and with an orderly mind, which was peculiarly sensitive 
to the immorality of risking the happiness of those whom nature 
had given the first claim on me, for the sake of a public object, I 
experienced a conflict between the demands of my responsible 
public station and the prior duties which I owed to my family, 
which altogether nearly paralyzed me. I should have retired 
from public life last August, had not some of my wealthy co- 
adjutors in Lancashire forced me to continue at my post, and had 
they not compelled me to leave to them the cares of my private 
business. It is owing to the knowledge which my neighbors in 
Lancashire have of the sacrifices which I, have incurred, that the 
subscription has been entered into ; and I wish you to be in pos- 
session of the facts, because you are the man of all others whom 
I should wish to possess the materials for forming a correct 
knowledge of the motives which compel me to take a course that 
jars at first sight on our notion of purity and disinterestedness." x 

It is not necessary to enter into a discussion of the propriety of 
Cobden's acceptance of the large sum of money, between seventy- 
five and eighty thousand pounds, which were collected in com- 
memoration of his services to what the subscribers counted a great 
public cause. The chief Leaguers anxiously discussed the project 
of a joint testimonial to Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Villiers, all 
three to be included in a common subscription. 2 But nobody 
could say how the fund was to be divided. It was then discussed 
whether as much money could be collected for the three as for 
Cobden individually, and it was agreed that it could not, for it 
was Cobden who united the sections of the Free Trade party. He 
had undoubtedly sacrificed good chances of private prosperity for 
the interest of the community, and it would have been a painful 
and discreditable satire on human nature if he had been left in 
ruin, while everybody around him was thriving on the results of 
his unselfish devotion. It is true that many others had made 
sacrifices both of time and money, but they had not sacrificed 
everything as Cobden had done. The munificence of the sub- 
scription was singularly honorable to those who contributed to it. 
No generous or reasonable man will think that it impairs by one 
jot the purity of the motives that prompted the exertions of the 
public benefactor whose great services it commemorated and 
rewarded. 

1 To Geo. Combe. July 14, 1846. 

2 The League had already voted a present of ten thousand pounds to Mr. George 
Wilson, their indefatigable chairman. 



278 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

CHAPTEE XVIII 

TOUR OVEE EUROPE. 

Accompanied by his wife, Cobden landed at Dieppe on the 5th 
of August, 1846. He arrived in the Thames on his return on the 
11th of October, 1847. He was absent, therefore, from England 
for fourteen months, and in the interval he had travelled in France, 
Spain, Italy, Germany, and Eussia. His reception was every- 
where that of a great discoverer in a science which interests the 
bulk of mankind much, more keenly than any other, the science 
of wealth. He had persuaded the richest country in the world to 
revolutionize its commercial policy. People looked on him as a 
man who had found out a momentous secret. In nearly every 
important town that he visited in every great country in Europe, 
they celebrated his visit by a banquet, toasts, and congratulatory 
speeches. He had interviews with the Pope, with three or four 
kings, with ambassadors, and with all the prominent statesmen. 
He never lost an opportunity of speaking a word in season. Even 
from the Pope he entreated that His Holiness's influence might 
be used against bull-fighting in Spain. They were not all con- 
verted, but they all listened to him, and they all taught him 
something, whether they chose to learn anything from him in 
return or not. 

The travellers passed rather more than eleven weeks in Spain, 
and at the beginning of the new year found themselves in Italy. 
Here they remained from January until the end of June. From 
Venice they went north to the Austrian capital, and thence to 
Berlin. In the first week in August Mrs. Cobden started for 
England, while her husband turned his face eastwards. In Eus- 
sia he passed five weeks, and three weeks more were usefully 
spent in the journey home by way of Lubeck and Hamburg. 

When' he returned to England he had such a conspectus and 
cosmorama of Europe in his mind as was possessed by no states- 
man in the country ; of the great economic currents, of the special 
commercial interests, of the conflicting political issues, of the lead- 
ing personages. Unless knowledge of such things is a super- 
fluity for statesmen whose strong point is asserted to be foreign 
policy, Cobden was more fit to discuss the foreign policy of this 
country than any man in it. In less than a year after his return, 
Europe was shaken by a tremendous convulsion. The kings 
whom he had seen were forced from their thrones, and the greatest 
of the statesmen of the old world fled out in haste from Vienna. 



JSt.42.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 279 

Neither they nor Cobden foresaw the storm that was so close 
upon them ; but Cobden at least was aware of those movements 
in Paris which were silently unchaining the revolutionary forces. 
The following passage is from a letter written ten years later, but 
this is a proper place for it : — 

" When I was in Paris in 1846, I saw Guizot, and though I 
had weighed him accurately as a politician, I pronounced him an 
intellectual pedant and a moral prude, with no more knowledge 
of men and things than is possessed by professors who live among 
their pupils, and he seemed to me to have become completely 
absorbed in the hard and unscrupulous will of Louis Philippe. 
At that time I was the hero of a successful agitation, and was 
taken into the confidence of all the leaders of the opposition who 
were getting up the movement which led first to the banquets, 
and next to the revolution. I was at Odillon Parrot's, and at 
Girardin's, and met in private conclave Beaumont, Tocqueville, 
Duvergier de Hauranne, Leon Faucher, Bastiat, and others. I 
was of course a good deal consulted as to the way of managing 
such things, and am afraid I must plead guilty to having been an 
accessory before the fact to much that was afterwards done with 
so little immediate advantage to those concerned. I remember in 
particular telling Odillon Barrot, in all sincerity, that he would 
have made a very successful agitator on an English platform. His 
bluff figure and vehement style of oratory would have almost 
made him another Bright. But to the point. I naturally made 
inquiries as to what amount of parliamentary reform they were 
aiming at, and to my surprise found that all they wanted was a 
small addition to the electoral list (not exceeding 200,000 voters), 
comprising 'les capacites,' the professions, and a certain small 
increase from a slightly reduced tax-paying franchise. Upon my 
expressing my amazement that they should go for such a small 
measure (which, to be sure, appeared insignificant to me, just 
fresh from the total repeal of the Corn Laws), they answered that 
it would satisfy them for the present; it would recognize the 
principle of progress ; and they frankly confessed that the bulk of 
the people were not fit for the suffrage, and that there was no 
security for constitutional government excepting in a restricted 
electoral class. Well, when these moderate men afterwards brought 
forward their harmless scheme, Guizot mounted the rostrum, and 
flourished his rod, and in true pedagogical style told them they 
were naughty boys — that they wanted to have banquets, which 
were very wicked things, and he would not allow such doings, 
and so he put down Barrot, Tocqueville, Bastiat, and Co., and up 
rose Marrast, Ledru Eollin, and Co., to fill their places. The 
whole thing was the result of Guizot' s pedantry and Louis Phi- 
lippe's unbelief in human nature. I had a long evening's talk 



280 LTFE OF COBDEN. 

with the latter at the Chateau d'Eu at the same time, and noth- 
ing so much struck me as his contempt for the people through 
whom and for whom he professed to rule. There is not the 
slightest possible doubt (no Englishman but myself has so good a 
ground for offering an opinion, for no other was in the secrets of 
the French reformers) that if Louis Philippe had allowed an 
addition of 200,000 voters to the 250,000 already on the electoral 
list, he would have renewed the lease of the Orleanist throne for 
twenty years, and in all probability have secured for the French 
people the permanent advantages of a constitutional govern- 
ment." 1 

As it happened, Cobden arrived in Spain at the moment of the 
once famous marriages of the young Queen and her sister, the one 
to her cousin, Don Francisco, the other to the Duke of Montpen- 
sier. The Minister sent Cobden and his party tickets for the 
ceremony, and they found themselves placed close to the great 
personages of the day. They went to a bull-fight, with the emo- 
tions that the scene usually stirs in all save Spanish breasts, and 
Cobden's disgust was particularly aroused by the presence of the 
Spanish Primate at the brutal festival. 2 Alexander Dumas, who 
had come to Madrid to write an account of the Duke of Montpen- 
sier's marriage, went with Cobden over the Museum and the 
Escurial. At Seville Cobden had such a reception that the news- 
papers assured their readers that Christopher Columbus himself 
could hardly have been more enthusiastically applauded, or more 
highly honored for the new world which he had presented to 
Castille. 

Everywhere men were delighted by his tact and address. He 
made as captivating points in a speech to the traders of Cadiz, the 
farmers of Perugia, or the great nobles in Rome, as when, from a 
wagon, he had addressed the rustics of a village in the West of 
England. At Milan he charmed them by mentioning that if they 
went into a London merchant's office they would find the accounts 
kept on a method which came from Italy ; and that the great 
centre of our financial system was in a street that was still named 
from the Lombard bankers. At Florence he warmed the hearts 
of those who listened to him by saying that he had come to Tus- 
cany with the feelings of a believer visiting the shrines of his 
faith. The Dutch and the Swiss owed to their geographical situ- 
ation a partial escape from the protective system ; but to Tuscany 
belonged the glory of preceding the rest of the world by half a 
century in applying economic theories to legislation. Let them 
render solemn homage, he cried w 7 ith an outburst of true elo- 

1 To J. Parkes, Dec. 28, 1856. 

2 Richard Cobden, "Notes sur ses Voyages," etc. Par Mdme. Salis Schwabe. 
Paris : Guillaumin, 1879. 



^Jr.42.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 281 

quence, to the memory of the great men who had taught the world 
this great lesson ; all honor to Bandini, who a century before had 
perceived the truth that Free Trade is the only sure instrument 
of prosperity ; undying honor to Leopoldi, who, seizing the lamp 
of science from the hands of Bandini, entered boldly into the 
ways of Free Trade, then obscure and unknown, without flinching 
before the obstacles that ignorance, prejudice, and selfishness had 
strewn in the path ; honor to Neri, to Giovanni Febbroni, to 
Fossombroni; to all those statesmen, in a word, who had pre- 
served down to our own days the great work which they had set 
on foot. 

Mrs. Cobden said that it was fortunate that her husband had 
not too high an opinion of himself, or else the Italians would have 
turned his head, so many attentions, both public and private, were 
showered upon him. Even at a tranquil little town like Perugia 
a troop of musicians sallied out to serenade him at his hotel, the 
Agricultural Society sent a silver medal and a diploma, and in 
the evening at the Casino the concert was closed by the recitation 
of verses in honor of Richard Cobden. 

On their arrival at Genoa, on their return from all these honors 
(May 20), they found that O'Connell had died there the previous 
day. They at once proceeded to pay a visit to his son, and from 
O'Connell's servant, who had been with him for thirteen years, 
they heard the circumstances of the great patriot's end. 1 

Cobden's diaries of this long and instructive tour are so copious 
that they would more than fill one of these volumes. They afford 
a complete economic panorama of the countries which he visited, 
and abound in acute observations, and judicious hints of all kinds 
from the Free Trader's point of view. Their facts, however, are 
now out of date, and their interest is mostly historic. The reader 
will probably be satisfied with a moderate number of extracts, 
recording Cobden's interviews with important people, and his 
impressions of historic scenes. 

Dieppe, Aug. 6th, 1846. — " Called and left my card with king's 
aide-de-camp, at the chateau. The king was out in the forest for 
a drive ; on his return received an invitation to call at the chateau 
at eight o'clock. We found thirty or forty persons in the saloon, 
the King, Queen, and Madame Adelaide, the King's sister, in the 
middle of the room. Louis Philippe was very civil and very 
communicative, talked much, against war, and ridiculed the idea 
of an acquisition of more territory, saying, ' What would be the 
use of our taking Charleville, or Philippeville ? Why, it would 

1 The common report that O'Connell intended to quit England and close his 
days at Rome was untrue : on the contrary, his own inclination was to stay at 
Derrynane, and the journey to Italy was only undertaken at the urgent solicitation 
of his friends. He was conscious up to the moment of his death. 



282 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1846. 

give us a dozen more bad deputies, that V all ! ' Said the people 
would not now tolerate war, and much in that strain. He alluded 
to the League and my labors, but I could not bring him to the 
subject of Free Trade as affecting his own country's interests. He 
spoke of the iron monopoly of France as being, if possible, worse 
than our corn monopoly. He and the Queen spoke in high terms 
of the kindness of the English people towards them. After this 
short interview I came away with the impression that the King- 
did not like the close discussion of the . Free Trade question, but 
that he preferred dwelling on generalities. I formed the opinion 
that he is a clever actor, and perhaps that is all we can say of the 
ablest sovereigns of this or any other country. 

" He was not very complimentary to Lord Palmerston, applying 
to him a French maxim, which may be turned into the English 
version, ' If you bray a fool in a mortar, he will remain a fool still.' 
He repeated two or three times that he wished there were no 
custom-houses, but ' how is revenue to be raised? ' He quoted a 
conversation with Washington, in which the latter had deplored 
the necessity of raising the whole of the American revenue from 
customs' duties. I had heard in England, before starting, that 
Louis Philippe was himself deeply interested in the preservation 
of monopoly ; and that his large property in forests would be di- 
minished in value by the free importation of coals and iron. But 
I will not hastily prejudge his Majesty so far as to believe, with- 
out better proofs, that he is actuated by a personal interest in 
secretly opposing the progress of Free Trade principles. It is 
difficult, however, to conceive that a man of his sagacity and 
knowledge can be blind to the importance of these principles in 
consolidating the peace of empires." 

" Paris, August 10th. — Early in the morning a call from Dom- 
ville, my old French master ; engaged him to give me an hour's 
instruction every morning during my stay in Paris. 1 Afterwards 
Horace Say called, a noble-looking man — a rare phrenological and 
physiognomical development." 

"August 15th, Saturday. — French lesson. Went with Leon 
Faucher to call upon M. Thiers ; walked and gossiped in his gar- 
den, and talked without reserve upon Free Trade. I warned 
him not to pronounce an opinion against us, thus to fall into the 
same predicament as Peel did. He seems never to have thought 
upon the subject, but promises fairly. A lively little man with- 
out dignity, and with nothing to impress you with a sense of 
power." 

"Barcelona, December 8th. — Eeached Barcelona at half-past five 
o'clock ; as it was half an hour after sunset, the health officers did 

1 By his diligent use of this opportunity Cobden succeeded in acquiring a really 
good command over the French language for colloquial and other purposes. 



^t.42.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 283 

not visit us, and we were shut up in our floating prison till the 
following morning. This system of requiring pratique at every 
port for vessels in the coasting trade is most useless and vexa- 
tious, and would be submitted to by none but Spaniards. They 
shrug their shoulders like Turks, and say, 'It was always so.' 
The waiter on the steamer told us that the best part of the profits 
of his situation came from smuggling, and that the smuggling was 
all done through the connivance of the government employe's ; he 
stated that the contraband goods conveyed by him -were generally 
carried on shore by the custom-house officers themselves. This 
agrees with all that I heard from the consuls and merchants on 
the Mediterranean coast. The French consul at Carthagena 
remarked, whilst speaking of the universal corruption of the cus- 
tom-house officers, ' With money you might pass the tower of 
Notre . Dame through the custom-house without observation, but 
without money you could not pass this,' holding up his pocket 
handkerchief." 

" Perjpignan, December 14th and 15th. — Luxuriated in the com- 
forts of a French inn. I felt almost ready to hug the furniture, 
kiss the white table-cloth, and shake hands with the waiters, so 
attractive did they all look after my Spanish discomforts ! Sat 
indoors and wrote letters. Walked once only into the town, an 
irregular, confined, and ugly fortified place. The only annoyance 
I experienced was from the military music and the parading and 
drilling of the troops." 

" Narbonne, December 16th. — Left Perpignan this morning at 
eleven o'clock. The road to Narbonne passed along the marshy 
shores of the Mediterranean; very uninteresting scenery. But 
the sensation of passing along a French road in an English car- 
riage was quite delightful after the Spanish travelling. The men 
wearing the blue blouse. What a contrast in the appearance of 
the two people ! On one side the mountain, the grave, sombre, 
dignified, dark Spaniard ; here the lively, supple, facetious, amia- 
ble Frenchman, who seems ready to adapt himself to any mood 
to please you." 

" Montpellier, December 17th. — Separated from our travelling 
companions 2 this morning at Narbonne ; they started at eight 
o'clock for Toulouse, and we at the same hour for Montpellier. 
Our road lay along a rich and populous but uninteresting coun- 
try, through Beziers, and for some distance close to the Mediter- 
ranean. The people were busy in the fields, cutting off the long 
dry shoots of the vines with a pair of pruning shears, and leaving 
nothing but the stumps. When within ten miles of Montpellier, 
snow began to fall, and it continued during the rest of the jour- 
ney." 

1 Mr. and Mrs. Schwabe. 



284 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

" Nice, Jan. 3d, 1847. — Sir George Napier called; lost his left 
arm at Ciudad Eodrigo ; is younger brother of the conqueror of 
Scinde, brother of the historian of the Peninsular war, and of the 
commodore. Told me some anecdotes of the wars with the Caffirs 
at the Cape of G-ood Hope, where he was governor seven years. 
Says the Hottentots make good soldiers when officered by Eng- 
lish ; described a regiment of them (dragoons), commanded by his 
son ; very small men, but superior to the Caffirs or Dutch Boers ; 
that they required restraining, so daring their courage, etc. This 
confirms my opinion that all races of men are equal in valor when 
placed under like circumstances." 

" Nice, Jan. 4th. — Saw a large number of men assembled in 
the open place ; peasants chiefly, conscripts for the army ; went 
amongst them, a sturdy-looking set, and apparently not dissatis- 
fied with their fate; am told they are generally only liable to 
serve for fourteen months. Called on M. Lacroix, the Consul, 
who said the government of Sardinia has a monopoly of salt, gun- 
powder, and tobacco ; that the province or county of Nice is not 
included in the general customs-law of the kingdom, but has its 
own privileges ; that corn from foreign countries pays a duty, but 
that all other articles, excepting those monopolized by govern- 
ment, are imported free. Called upon an old Frenchman, named 
Sergent, in his ninety-seventh year, who acted a prominent part 
in the scenes of the first revolution, and is one of the few men 
living who signed or voted for the execution of the king ; was 
originally an engraver, and there were several of his productions 
on the walls of his room, but nothing commemorative of Napo- 
leon's exploits." * 

" Nice, Jan. 5th. — Dined with Mr. Davenport, and met M. Ser- 
gent. Took tea with Sir George Napier and Lady N. ; met M. 
Gastand, a merchant of the town, who told me that woollens are 
imported from France into Nice, and again smuggled into that 
country, the drawback of twenty per cent allowed in France upon 
the exportation affording a profit on this singular traffic; says that 
the refined sugar exported from Marseilles receives a drawback of 
six per cent, and that this sugar is sold cheaper in Nice than in 
France." . 

" Genoa, Jan. 13th. — This morning the Marquis d'Azeglio 
called, with Mr. William Gibbs — the former a Piedmontese who 
has written poetry, romances, and political works, and is also an 
artist. He told me he had been expelled from Rome by the late 
Pope, and from Lombardy and Florence, in consequence of his 

1 Sergent is commonly credited with a leading share in the organization and 
direction of the September Massacres in 1792 ; on the other hand, he is supposed to 
have saved several victims from the guillotine. Louis Philippe, who had been his 
colleague in the Jacobin Club, gave him a pension of 1800 francs. 



MtAS.'] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 285 

writings. An amiable and intelligent man, evincing rational 
views upon the moral progress of his country, and deprecating 
revolutionary violence as inimical to the advance of liberal prin- 
ciples. 

" Genoa, Jan. 16th. — Called on Dr. and Mr. Brown (Con- 
sul) ; the latter showed me a copy of Junius, with numerous notes 
in pencil by Home Tooke on the margin ; described the dema- 
gogue, whom he knew personally, as a finished scoundrel. In 
the evening dined with a_ party of about fifty persons, Marquis 
d'Azeglio president. The consuls of France, Spain, Belgium, and 
Tuscany present, as well as several of the Genoese nobles, and 
merchants of different countries. French was universally spoken. 
My speech was intended for the ministers at Turin rather than 
my hearers. In this country, where there is no representative 
system, public opinion has no direct mode of influencing the 
policy of the state, and therefore I used such arguments as were 
calculated to have weight with the government, and induce them to 
favor Free Trade as a means of increasing the national revenue." 

"Genoa, Jan. 17th.. — In the evening M. Papa called and re- 
mained for a long talk about the affairs of the country. The law 
for the division of the landed property on the death of proprietors 
is nearly the same here as in France, it being shared equally by 
the children. An entail can be settled upon the eldest son only 
with the consent of the king, and it is not willingly granted. The 
nobles or patricians of Genoa are all Marquises, they having de- 
rived the title from Charles the Fifth of Spain. The present rep- 
resentatives of these old families have generally much degenerated 
from their energetic and public-spirited ancestors. 

" Genoa, Jan. 18th. — In the evening I visited the governor 
(Marchese Paulucci) at his reception. A large party filled his 
rooms, some dancing ; a large majority of the men, officers in the 
army. The governor thanked me for the tone in which I had 
spoken at the public dinner given to me on Saturday ; said that 
he had naturally felt a little anxious to know how the proceedings 
had been conducted, and complimented me upon my tact, etc. 1 
In speaking about the power of Eussia to make an irruption into 
Europe, I expressed an opinion that she had not the money to 
march 40,000 soldiers out of her territory; he agreed with me, 

1 " Although disposed to he grateful for their public banquets of which I have 
had upwards of a dozen in Italy, besides private parties without num ber, yet I can 
see other motives besides compliments to me in their meetings. In the first place 
the old spirit of rivalry has been at work amongst the different towns. But sec- 
ondly, the Italian Liberals have seized upon my presence as an excuse for holding 
a meeting on a public question, to make speeches and offer toasts, often for the first 
time. They consider this a step gained, and so it is. And I have been sometimes 
surprised that the government have allowed it. In Austrian Italy such demonstra- 
tions are quite unprecedented." — Cobden to George Combe, June, 1847. 



286 LIFE OE COBDEN. [1847. 

and mentioned an anecdote in confirmation. He said that when 
he was military governor of a district in the Caucasus, he was 
applied to for a plan of operations for the invasion of Persia ; 
that, when he handed in to the Minister his estimate of the num- 
ber of troops to be set in motion, the latter was so surprised at 
the smallness of the force that he declared it was not worthy of 
the occasion, and that he could not present it to the Emperor. 
' But how will you transport a greater number of men to the 
scene of operations if I add them to my estimate ? ' said the gen- 
eral. ' Oh ! we must build boats and construct wagons,' was the 
reply. ' Where is the money to come from ? ' was the rejoinder. 
At last the plan was laid before the Emperor, who saw the diffi- 
culty and confirmed the view of the general." 

" Borne, Jan. 22d. — In Tuscany no corn law of any kind has 
been allowed to exist by the present dynasty for many genera- 
tions. Mr. Lloyd told me an anecdote of one of the leaders of 
the revolutionary party of 1831, who, when asked by him what 
practical reforms he wished to carry by a change in the govern- 
ment, remarked that one of the grievances he wished to remedy 
was the want of adequate protection for the land. So that had 
this patriot been able to induce the people to upset the Grand 
Duke's authority, he would have rewarded them with a Corn 
Law ! Was told that the grass of which the far-famed Leghorn 
bonnets are made, can only be grown in perfection in Tuscany, 
that it has been sown elsewhere, but without success, and that the 
seed from which it is grown is the produce of a few fields only ; 
inquire further on my return about this. Left Leghorn at six 
o'clock for Civita Vecchia, and arrived there at eight the follow- 
ing morning Left at half-past twelve for Rome, the road 

lying along the beach for several miles. Almost immediately on 
quitting the town the country assumed the character of a wild 
common, covered with shrubs and tufts of long grass, and this 
neglected appearance of the soil continued with slight interrup- 
tions of cultivated patches as long as daylight lasted. Noticed 
the fine bullocks of a light gray color, with dark shoulders, and 
having very long branching horns, noble-looking animals. It was 
an indistinct moonlight as we came near Eome On turn- 
ing a corner of the road we came suddenly upon a full and close 
view of the dome of St. Peter's, which stood out boldly in the 
evening sky." 

" Home, Jan. 23d. — The effect of the colonnade is much im- 
paired by the high square buildings of the Vatican, which rise 
high above on the right, and detract even from the appearance of 
the great facade. On the first sight of the interior, I was not 
struck so much with its grandeur or sublimity, as with the beauty 
and richness of its details. I felt impressed with more solemnity 



^t.43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 287 

in entering York Minster for the first time than in St. Peter's. 
The glare and glitter of so much gold and such varieties of mar- 
ble distract the eye, and prevent it taking in the whole form 
of the building in one cowp-d'ceil, as we do in the simple stone of 
our unadorned Gothic Cathedrals. I was disappointed too in 
the statues, many of which are poor things." 

" Rome, Jan. 25th. — .... Then to the Vatican, and passed 
a couple of hours in walking leisurely through the numerous gal- 
leries of sculpture where the enthusiastic admirer of the art may 
revel to intoxication amidst the most perfect forms ; here I was 
more than satisfied. I had not pictured to myself anything so 
extensive or varied. Not only is the human figure of both sexes 
and all ages in every possible graceful attitude transferred to mar- 
ble, which all but breathes and moves, but there are perfect 
models of animals too, and all arranged with consummate taste 
and skill in rooms that are worthy of enshrining such treasures. 
The Laocoon to my eye is the masterpiece. The Apollo Belvidere 
is perfect in anatomy, but the features express no feeling. Saw 
Eaphael's masterpiece ; the drawing faultless, but the subjects 
were unhappily dictated by monkish patrons, and they confined 
the artist too much to the expression of a very limited range of 
sentiments, as veneration, etc." 

" Feb. 8th. — In the evening to a ball at the French embassy, in 
the Colonna Palace — a magnificent suite of rooms, filled with 
Italians, French, and English. Saw Count Eossi for the first 
time (the Ambassador), a sharp-faced, intellectual-looking man ; 
I suspect he is more of the diplomatist than the political econo- 
mist, and more of a politician than a Free Trader. Met the 
young Prince Broglie, an intelligent youth ; was introduced to 
Antonelli, the Finance Minister ; and had a long conversation 
with Grassellini, the Governor of Eome, urging him to signalize 
his reign over the city by lighting it with gas, and laying down 
foot pavements. Left at twelve o'clock." 

"Feb. 10th. — I was entertained at a public dinner in the hall 
of the Chamber of Commerce ; about thirty-five persons present, 
Marquis Potenziani in the chair ; Prince Corsini, very aged, Prince 
Canino (Bonaparte), Duke of Bracciano (Torlonia), Marquis Dra- 
gonetti, etc., amongst the guests. The healths of the Pope and 
the Queen of England drank together as one toast ! I spoke in 
English, about a dozen of the company appearing to understand 
me. Doctor Pantaleone then read an Italian translation of my 
speech, which was well received and elicited cheers for the trans- 
lator from those who had understood English. A Doctor Masi, a 
celebrated improvisatore, delivered an improvisation in the course 
of the evening upon myself ; his look and gestures were strikingly 
eloquent, even to one who could not understand his language. 



288 . LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

There was a wild expression of inspiration in his countenance 
which realized the ideal of a poet's fine frenzy, and the effect was 
heightened by his long black hair, which streamed from a high 
pale brow down upon his shoulders. His emotions imparted to 
the audience an electrical effect, which now roused them to im- 
moderate excitement and next melted them to tears. One of his 
verses produced an unanimous call for an encore ; he paused for a 
moment, drew his fingers through his hair, then tried to reproduce 
the verse, but there came forth another cast of rhymes. His last 
verse, which drew tears from those around, was translated to me, 
and conveyed this sentiment : ' When you go back to England, 
say you found Italy a corpse, but upon it was planted a green 
branch, which will one day flower again and bring forth fruit.' 
The dinner went off with great spirit, and, remembering that we 
were sitting so near the walls of the Vatican, I thought it the 
most cheering proof of the wide-spread sympathy for Free Trade 
principles that I had seen in the course of all my travels." 

"Feb. 11th. — Called on Prince Corsini, Colonel Caldwell, Lord 
Ossulston, then to the Corso again, to join in the fun of the 
Carnival, streets more crowded than ever with carriages and 
masquers, the English everywhere and always the most uproar- 
ious. If there be any excess of boisterousness visible, it is ten 
to one that it proceeds from the English or other foreigners. The 
Italians do little more than exchange bouquets or little bons-bons 
in a very quiet graceful way, throwing them to each other from 
their carriages or balconies, but the English shovel upon each other 
the chalk confettis, with all the zeal and energy of navigators. It 
is quite certain that a carnival in England would not pass over so 
peaceably as here ; people would begin with sugar plums, and go 
on to apples and oranges, then proceed to potatoes, and end prob- 
ably with stones." 

" Borne, February 12th. — Called on Mr. Hemans, son of the 
poetess, who is editing the Roman Advertiser, an English weekly 
paper, and gave him a copy of my speech. Then accompanied 
Prince Canino in an open carriage to see the foxhounds throw off 
in the Campagna, beyond the tomb of Ceecilia Metella; the 
hounds drew the ruins of aqueducts and tombs, under the direc- 
tion of ' Dick ' and ' George,' the whippers-in, in regular Melton 
style, but not finding, they proceeded across the Campagna to a 
wood at a distance. The Prince followed the field in his drag, 
leaving the road, and going across the country, just as we should 
have done in an American prairie. We soon found ourselves 
upon a trackless waste, with no other habitations than here and 
there a wigwam, for the temporary accommodation of the shep- 
herds during the winter months, the only part of the year when 
man or beast can exist in this region. The Marquis d'Azeglio 



JEr.43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 289 

called on me on his arrival from Genoa. We had a long chat 
upon the prospects of Italy ; his political views appeared to me 
sound and rational, and he is evidently under the influence of 
patriotic feelings. There is always hope for a country that pro- 
duces such men. 

" In the evening to the American Consul's, and found a number 
of his countrymen and women in masquerade dresses, everything 
about them lively excepting the spirits of the actors. Introduced 
to several of ' our most distinguished citizens,' — a title for a 
bore." 

"February 13th. — Dined with Mr. and Mrs. S. Gurney, met 
young Bunsens, and some other Germans, the Prussian Minister, 
etc. Speaking to the latter about his being almost the only 
Protestant representative at the court of the Pope, he said that 
Peel had applied to the Prussian Government to know whether 
it found it advantageous or otherwise to have a diplomatic con- 
nection with the Holy See, and that the answer given was, that 
the disadvantages rather predominated, and that if that Govern- 
ment stood in the position of England, it would prefer to remain 
without diplomatic relations with Kome. Next to Prince Canino's 
soiree, very mixed, but very agreeable, and many intelligent men 
there. Was introduced to the Count of Syracuse, brother of the 
King of Naples, with whom I had a long talk about Ireland, 
France, and other matters. Found him, for a king's brother, a 
very clear-headed, well-informed man. Talked with the Sardinian 
Minister about Turkey, where he had been ambassador for eight 
years. The Marquis Dragonetti, an able man. Was introduced 
to several others of note." 

" February 14th. — They who argue that the working people 
are elevated in intellect and prompted to habits of cleanliness and 
self-respect by having free access to public buildings devoted to 
the arts, must not quote the ragged, dirty crowds who frequent 
St. Peter's to kiss the toe of the statue of the saint ! " 

"Feb. 16th. — The statue of Moses by Michael Angelo in the 
Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, did not impress me on looking 
at it as I expected. The execution may be all that the sculptor 
desires, but to my eye the face wants both dignity and honesty 
of expression, and the head fails to impress me with the idea of 
wisdom or capacity in the great lawgiver." 

" Feb. 19th. — To the Barberini Palace to see a very small col- 
lection of paintings, one of them the far-famed Beatrice Cenci by 
Guido. The touching pensiveness of the face produces such an 
impression that it will be present in one's recollection when per-, 
haps every other picture in Eome is forgotten. 

" In the evening took tea with Mrs. Jameson, authoress of 
works on early painters, an agreeable woman, whose good-nature 

19 



290 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

and sense prevent her from displaying the unpleasant qualities of 
too many literary ladies. Met Mr. Gibson the sculptor, who 
talked about robbers and assassins, with a graphic description of 
them and their victims, which was quite professional." 

"Feb. 22d. — Went with Mrs. Jameson to the Vatican, walked 
through the sculpture galleries. The Braccio Nuovo contains a 
statue of Demosthenes in an attitude most earnest ; there is no 
appearance of effort or art in the figure, and yet it is endowed 
with the earnest and sincere expression which an actor would 
seek to imitate. The countenance expresses a total forgetfulness 
of self and everything but the subject on which the mind of the 
orator is intent. The sculptor has not only succeeded in making 
his marble convey the idea of sincerity, but it almost makes you 
think it feels sincere. The whole art of the work lies in this 
impress of earnestness, and it proves that the artist knew where 
the secret of oratory lies, and I can fancy that Demosthenes him- 
self might have been the instructor of the sculptor on this point. 
The full-length statue of the Koman lady in the same gallery is 
dignified, chaste, and graceful. 

" Walked with Mrs. Jameson into the Sistine Chapel, to see 
Michael Angelo's frescos ; the Last Judgment at one end, and 
the whole of the ceiling from his pencil. It is a deplorable mis- 
application of. the time and talent of a man of genius to devote 
years to the painting of the ceiling of a chapel, at which one can 
only look by an effort that costs too much inconvenience to the 
neck to leave the mind at ease to enjoy the pleasure of the paint- 
ing With all the enthusiasm of my fair companion, I could 

not feel much gratification at this celebrated work of art. 

"At seven o'clock was presented to the Pope in his private 
cabinet, where I found him in a white flannel friar's dress, sitting 
at a small writing-desk surrounded with papers. The approach 
to this little room was through several lofty and spacious apart- 
ments. The curtained doors and the long flowing robes of the 
attendants reminded me, oddly enough, of my interview with 
Mehemet Ali at Cairo. Pius IX. received me with a hearty and 
unaffected expression of pleasure at meeting one who had been 
concerned in a great and good work in England ; commended my 
perseverance and the means by which the principle of Free Trade 
had been made to triumph ; and he remarked that England was 
the only country where such triumphs were achieved by years of 
legal and moral exertion. He professed himself to be favorable 
to Free Trade, and said all he could do should be done to forward 
it, but modestly added that he could do but little. I pointed to 
Tuscany, his next neighbor, as a good example to follow, and said 
that England had not been ashamed to take a lesson from that 
country ; and I added that Tuscany was an inconvenient neighbor, 



JJr.43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 291 

owing to the smuggling which would be carried on until his tariff 
was put upon the same moderate scale. He spoke of the wide 
frontier of his territories as being favorable to the contraband 
trade, and alluded to the desirableness of a custom-house union 
in Italy. In parting, I called his attention to the practice in 
Spain of having bull-fights in honor of the saints and virgins on 
the fete days, and gave him an extract from a Madrid paper, 
giving an account of a bull-fight there in honor of its patroness 
the Virgin. After a little conversation upon the cruelty and 
demoralization of these spectacles, he thanked me for having 
drawn his attention to it, and promised to give instructions upon 
the subject to an envoy whom he was about to send to Spain. 
He concluded by another complimentary phrase or two, and we 
left. I was impressed with the notion that he is sincere, kind- 
hearted, and good, and that he is possessed of strong common 
sense and sound understanding. He did not strike me as a man 
of commanding genius." 

"Feb. 23d. — Dined with Count Eossi, the French Ambassador. 
A splendid banquet, at which the foreign ambassadors in Eome, 
including the Turkish envoy going to Vienna, were present. 
Looking round the table I saw represented, Italy, France, Ger- 
many, Eussia, England, Turkey, and Syria, the latter by a bishop 
of the Maronites." 

" Feb. 24th. — We have been in Eome a month, have seen some 
of the wonders of the ancients, and have been overwhelmed with 
the kindness of friends, but I long for a quiet day or two in 
travelling over the Campagna, where the sheep will be the only 
living objects that will surround us. I came here expecting 
repose, and have found excitement, crowded evening parties, and 
late hours. At eleven o'clock at night Doctor Masi called again, 
bringing me sundry packets of his newspaper, the Contemporaneo, 
which he desires' to transmit by me to Naples, thus making me a 
kind of moral smuggler." 

" Naples, Feb. 27th. — Left Eome Thursday morning, 25th Feb- 
ruary, at half-past eight, for Naples, by the new Appian Way, 
which leaves the old road of that name a little to the right on 
quitting the city, but falls into it a few miles off. The course of 
this celebrated old road may be distinctly traced at a distance by 
the mounds and ruins of tombs and temples with which its sides 
are fringed. Snow fell as we passed out of Eome. The view of 
the Campagna, with the ruined aqueducts stretching across its 
desolate surface, presented a striking contrast to the luxurious 
and busy scene which we had but a few minutes before taken 
leave of within the city walls. These stately and graceful aque- 
ducts are nearly the only ruins which excite feelings of regret, be- 
ing perhaps the sole buildings which did not merit destruction by 



292 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

the crimes, the folly, and the injustice which attended their con- 
struction, or the purposes to which they were devoted. 

" We are now in the territory of the king of the Two Sicilies, 
who can certainly boast of ruling over more beggars than any 
other sovereign. Mendicancy seems to be the profession of all 
the laboring people whenever they have an opportunity of prac- 
tising it. No sooner is a traveller's carriage seen than young and 
old pounce upon it ; the peasant woman throws down her load 
that she may keep up with the vehicle, bawling out incessantly 
for charity ; the boy who is watching the sheep, a field or two off, 
hurries across hedge and ditch to intercept you as you go up the 
hill ; aud when the carriage stops to change horses, it is surrounded 
by lame, halt, and blind, scrambling and screaming for alms. The 
rags and misery remind me of Ireland. The only persons I see 
in the small towns and villages with clean sleek skins and good 
clothes on their backs are priests and soldiers." 

" March <itli. — Went with M. d'Azala to the Museum, first to 
see the room containing jewelry and ornaments, but did not think 
them generally in such good taste or so well executed as those I 
had seen in Campana's collection of Etruscan works of a similar 
kind in Borne. Next to the rooms containing the articles in 
bronze, brought principally from Pompeii. Here I found speci- 
mens of all the common household utensils — lamps, jugs, pans, 
moulds for pastry, some of them in the form of shells, others of 
animals ; scales and steelyards, mirrors, bells, articles for the toi- 
let, including rouge ; bread in loaves, with the name of the maker 
stamped on them, surgical instruments, cupping cups in bronze, 
locks, key, hinges, tickets for the theatre; in fact, I was introduced 

to the mode of domestic every-day life amongst the ancients 

After seeing this portion of the Museum I came away without 
proceeding farther, preferring to mix up no other objects with my 
enjoyment to-day of certainly the most novel and interesting col- 
lection of curiosities I ever beheld." 

" Naples, March 6th. — At eleven o'clock went with Mr. Close to 
the palace to see the king by appointment ; conversed for a short 
time with him upon Free Trade, about which he did not appear to 
be altogether ignorant or without some favorable sympathies. He 
questioned me about the future solution of the Irish difficulty, a 
question which seems to be uppermost in the minds of all states- 
men and public men on the continent. The king is a stout and 
tall man, heavy looking, and of restricted capacity. I am told he 
is amiable and correct in his domestic life, excessively devout and 
entirely in the hands of his confessor, of whom report does not 
speak favorably." 

"March 16th. — T went to the Museum to see the collection of 
bronzes again whilst the houses from which they were taken in 



JEt.43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 293 

Pompeii were fresh in my memory. I was introduced to the 
members of the Academy of Science, who were holding an ordi- 
nary meeting in their room in the same building. A compli- 
mentary address to me was delivered by Sig. Mancini, and 
responded to by other members, and I thanked them briefly in 
French." 

" Turin, May 26, 1847. — Had an interview with his Majesty 
Charles Albert, a very tall and dignified figure, with a sombre, but 
not unamiable expression of countenance ; received me frankly ; 
talked of railroads, machinery, agriculture, and similar practical 
questions. Said he hoped I was contented with what his Govern- 
ment had done in the application of my principles, and informed 
me that his ministry had resolved upon a further reduction of 
duties on iron, cotton, &c. He is said to have good intentions, 
but to want firmness of character. 

" In the evening, Count Eevel, minister of finance, came in, 
with whom I had a long discussion upon Free Trade, a sensible 
man. Speaking to Signor Cibrario upon the subject of the com- 
merce of the middle ages in Italy, he said that the principle of 
protection or Colbertism was unknown ; that, however, there were 
innumerable impediments to industry and internal commerce, ow- 
ing to the corporations of trades and the custom-houses which sur- 
rounded every little state and almost every little city." 

"May 28, 1847. — Went at eight o'clock in the morning to hear 
a lecture by Signor Scialoja, Professor of Political Economy at the 
University, a Neapolitan of considerable talent, who delivered his 
address with much eloquence, extempore with the aid of notes. 
In the course of his lecture he alluded in flattering terms to my 
presence, which elicited applause from a crowded auditory, com- 
prising, in addition to the students, numerous visitors, officers 
in the army, clergymen, advocates, &c. On my leaving the hall 
at the close I was cheered by a crowd of students in the Court. 
Count Petitti and the Count Cavour took breakfast with me." 

" Milan, June 3. — Attended a meeting of La Societa d'lncor- 
raggiamento of Milan. About 200 persons were present, consist- 
ing of members and their friends. A paper was read by Signor 
G. Sacchi upon the doctrine of Eomagnosi (a Milanese writer) on 
free trade, in which he alluded in complimentary terms to my 
presence. Then Signor A. Mauri (the secretary) read an eulo- 
gistic address to me. After which Chevalier Maffei read a paper 
upon Milton, with a long translation from the first book of ' Para- 
dise Lost.' In conclusion I delivered a short address in French, 
thanking the Society and recommending the study of political 
economy to the young men present. The meeting terminated 
with enthusiastic expressions of satisfaction. In the evening was 
entertained at a public dinner (the first ever held in Milan) by 



294 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

about eighty persons, including most of the leading literary men 
of the place, Signor G. Basevi, advocate, in the chair. This gen- 
tleman, who I was told is of the Jewish persuasion, had the moral 
courage to act as counsel in defence of Hofer the Tyrolese leader, 
when he was tried by a military commission at Mantua and sen- 
tenced to be shot. Not having before taken part in a similar 
demonstration, he was unacquainted with the mode of conducting 
a meeting. He began the toasts in the midst of the dinner, by 
proposing my health in an eloquent speech. Then followed three 
or four others who all proposed my health. Before the dinner was 
concluded, other orators, who had become a little heated with 
wine, wished to speak. One of them broke through the rule laid 
down, and almost entered upon the forbidden ground of Austrian 
politics. However, by dint of management and entreaty the ex- 
cited spirits were calmed, and the banquet went off pretty well. 
Eeceived an anonymous letter entreating me not to propose the 
health of the Emperor of Austria." 

" Lake Como, June 7. — Lounged away the morning over Mad- 
ame d'Arblay's Memoirs, and Lady C. Bury's George IV. Heard 
also some gossip about the residents on the shores of the lake, 
not the most favorable to their morality. After dinner made an 
excursion to the town of Como and saw the Cathedral." 

" Desenzano, June 9. — Found Signor Salevi an intelligent and 
amiable man, his head and countenance striking ; is writing a 
book upon prison reform, and a great promoter of infant schools, 
of which he says there are three well conducted in Brescia, and 
supported by voluntary contributions. Speaking about the pro- 
prietorship of land, which is in this neighborhood very much 
divided, he expressed his surprise that England, so greatly in 
advance of Europe in other respects, should still preserve so 
much of the feudal system in respect to the law of real property. 
He thinks the law of succession, as established in the Code Na- 
poleon, highly favorable to the mass of the people ; that nothing- 
gives dignity to a man, and develops his self-respect so effectually, 
as the ownership of property, however small. In Lombardy, as 
in Piedmont, one half the property is at the disposal of a father 
on his decease ; the remainder is by law given equally amongst 
his children. I find everywhere on the continent, amongst all 
classes, the same unfavorable opinion of our law of primogeniture 
in England." 

" Venice, June 21. — In the evening dined at a public enter- 
tainment at the island of Giudecca, under an alcove of vines ; the 
party consisted of about seventy persons, Count Priuli in the 
chair, the podesta or mayor by his side, the French and American 
consuls being present. At the close of the sumptuous repast, the 
chairman called upon Dr. Locatelli to propose my health in be- 



iEx.43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 295 

half of the meeting, and he read a short and eloquent speech, to 
which I replied in French. It had been arranged that no other 
speeches should be made. M. Chalaye, a French gentleman who 
was in China representing the French Government during our 
late war there, and who is now appointed Consul to Peru, made a 
strong appeal privately to the chairman, to be allowed to make a 
speech, but without success. We left the table, and after taking 
coffee, the party entered their gondolas, which were waiting, and 
accompanied by the excellent band of music belonging to an 
Austrian regiment, which had played during the dinner, we pro- 
ceeded in procession down the grand canal to the Eialto bridge. 
The music and the gay liveries of some of our boatmen soon 
attracted a great number of gondolas ; the sound and sight also 
brought everybody into their balconies ; as we returned the moon, 
which had risen, gave a fresh charm to the picturesque scene, 
which was sufficiently romantic to excite poetical emotions even 
in the mind of a political economist." 

" Trieste, June 26th. — Left Venice this morning at six o'clock in 
the Austrian Lloyd's steamboat, a handsome, large, and clean vessel. 
It was low water, and as we came out of the port, through the 
tortuous channel which winds amongst the islands, it afforded a 
good view of the advantages which the Queen of the Adriatic 
possessed behind these intricate barriers. The view of the city 
at a few miles' distance, with its palaces, towers, and domes, 
rising from the level of the water, and its low country at the back 
shut in by high mountains, is very magnificent. Eeached Trieste 
at two o'clock. The coast hilly, and the town stands upon a 
confined spot shut in by the high land, which rises immediately at 
the back. The ships lie in an open roadstead, and are exposed to 
certain winds. The number of square-rigged vessels and the 
activity in the port offer a contrast to the scene at Venice." 

" Trieste, July 1st. — Dined at a public dinner given to me by 
about ninety of the principal merchants in the saloon of the 
theatre. M. Schlapfer, President of the Exchange Committee, in 
the chair. The speeches were delivered in the midst of the din- 
ner. M. de Brack, the projector and chief director of Austrian 
Lloyd's, spoke well. Signor dell' Ongaro, who is an Italian and 
a poet, read a speech, in which he made allusion to Italian nation- 
ality, which drew forth some hasty remarks from M. de Brack, 
and led to a scene of some excitement. After dinner I persuaded 
them to shake hands. In speaking to the chairman during the 
dinner, he described the iron-masters in Styria as not having in a 
series of years realized much money, notwithstanding their being- 
protected by heavy duties. Many of the nobility are interested 
in these furnaces ; their businesses badly managed. He gives a 
still worse description of the cotton spinners and manufacturers, 



296 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

who cling to the ways of their fathers, and do not improve their 
machinery, being very inferior to the Swiss ; does not know of an 
instance of one of them retiring from business with a fortune, 
and few of .them are rich in floating capital. A good band of an 
Austrian regiment performed during the dinner." 

" Vienna, July 7th. — Looked in to see the famous monumental 
tomb by Canova, an original and successful design. I think, how- 
ever, this sculptor lived to enjoy the best of his fame, and that 
posterity will hardly preserve the warmth of enthusiasm for his 
genius that was felt by the generation in which he lived." 

" Vienna, July 10th. — Paid a visit in company with M. de 
H. to Prince Metternich, whose appearance hardly denotes the 
veteran of seventy-five. His head and countenance convey the 
impression of high polish rather than native force of character, 
and his conversation is -more subtle than profound. He . talks 
incessantly, perhaps in order to choose his own topics ; the state 
of Italy was his principal theme, and he professed to be appre- 
hensive of violent disorders in that country. He entered into a 
long essay upon differences of race, and the antagonisms of nation- 
ality in Europe. ' Why did Italy still have favorable feelings to- 
wards France, notwithstanding the injuries she had received from 
the latter country ? Because the two nations were of the same 
race. Why were England and France so inveterately opposed ? 
Because upon their opposite coasts the Teutonic and Latin races 
came into close contact ? ' Again and again he returned to the 
state of Italy, spoke of their jealousies and hatreds, one town of 
another; said, that a man in Milan. would not lend his money 
upon mortgage in Cremona or Padua, because ' he could not see 
the church steeple.' It struck me that his hatred of the Italians 
partook of the feeling described by Rochefoucauld when he says 
that we never forgive those whom we have injured. Speaking of 
Austria, he dilated upon the great diversity of the character and 
condition of the people, and seemed to be vindicating his con- 
servative policy. ' How could they have a representative system, 
when men from different parts of the empire, if assembled as rep- 
resentatives in the capital, could not understand each other ? 
The Eraperor was King of Hungary, of Lombardy, and of Bohemia, 
Count of Tyrol, and Archduke of Austria.' He alluded to the 
generally comfortable state of the people, and wished me to ex- 
amine into their condition. He seemed to speak on the defensive, 
like a man. conscious that public opinion in Europe was not favor- 
able to his policy ; he threw in parenthetically, and with a deli- 
cate finesse, some compliments, such as ' I wish I was an English- 
man.' ' I speak like yourself, as a practical man, and not in the 
language of romance.' ' You and I are of the same race,' &c. He 
alluded to Ireland, and said he could not discover a key for the 



JEr.48.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 297 

solution of the difficulty : in other countries reforms were wanted, 
but there a social system must be created out of chaos. He is 
probably the last of those state physicians who, looking only to 
the symptoms of a nation, content themselves with superficial 
remedies from day to day, and never attempt to probe beneath 
the surface, to discover the source of the evils which afflict the 
social system. This order of statesmen will pass away with him, 
because too much light has been shed upon the laboratory of 
governments, to allow them to impose upon mankind with the 
old formulas. 

"After leaving Prince Metternich, I called upon Baron Kiibeck, 
minister of finance, a man of a totally different character from his 
chief. He is a simple, sincere, and straightforward man; expressed 
himself favorably to a relaxation of the protective system, but 
spoke of the difficulties which powerful interests put in his way ; 
said that Dr. List had succeeded in misleading the public mind 
on the question of protection. A visit from Prince Esterhazy, 
who was upwards of twenty years ambassador in England ; he 
remarked that diplomacy upon the old system was now mere 
humbug, for that the world was much too well informed upon all 
that was going on in every country to allow ambassadors to mys- 
tify matters." 

" Dresden, July 21st. — Called on M. Zeschau, the Saxon finance 
minister, an able hard-working man, who also fills the office of 
minister for foreign affairs ; . tells me the land is much divided in 
Saxony, that the owner of an estate worth 60,000/. is deemed a 
large proprietor ; the majority of the farmers cultivate their own 
land ; in some of the hilly districts the weavers rent a small patch 
of ground for garden or potatoes ; the feudal service, or corvee, 
has been abolished in Saxony since 1833, having been commuted 
into fixed payments, which will be redeemed gradually in a few 
years. He spoke of Ireland, and said he would dispose of the 
uncultivated land in the same way as they do in Saxony of the 
mines of coal, &c. If after a certain fixed period the proprietor 
of the land will not work them, they are let by the government 
to other parties, subject to the payment of a rent to the owner, 
according to the produce raised." 

"Dresden, July 22d. — Went with M. Krug to see the collection 
of jewels, and articles of carving, sculpture, &c. in the green vaults. 
Then to the royal library, and made the acquaintance of M. Fal- 
kenstein, the chief librarian, a learned and interesting man, who 
showed us a manuscript work by Luther, and some other curiosi- 
ties. M. Ealkenstein is acquainted with Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin critically, is also learned in the Arabic, Persian, and Scla- 
vonic languages, speaks French, German, English, Italian, &c. ; his 
salary, as head librarian, having no one over him, is 150Z., and he 



298 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

has a wife and six children ! Speaking of Luther's coarseness, he 
said that there are some of his letters in the library so grossly 
violent and abusive that they are unfit to be read in the presence 
of women. M. Falkenstein is the author of a life of Kosciusko, 
the Polish patriot, whom he knew when he was a boy at Soleure, 
in Switzerland, where the old warrior died. He described him as 
very amiable and charitable ; he was accustomed to ride an old 
horse who was so used to the habit of his master of giving alms 
to beggars, that he would stop instinctively when he came near 

to a man in rags Saw in a shop window to-day a silk 

handkerchief for sale, with my portrait engraved and my name 
attached." 

"Berlin, July 2Sth. — "Went to Babelsberg, near Potsdam, at 
five in the afternoon, to visit the Prince of Prussia, the king's 
brother and heir presumptive to the throne. 1 A little before 
seven I found the prince and princess and their attendants in the 
garden. He is a straightforward, soldier-like man, she a clever 
woman, speaking English well. A school for the officers' sons 
had been invited to visit the grounds ; the youths, dressed in a 
military costume, were inspected by the prince, and afterwards 
the princess walked along the lines and accosted some of the boys 
in the front rank. Then some large balls were produced, and the 
princess began the fun by throwing them amongst the lads, who 
scrambled for them ; the prince joined in the amusement, and 
they pelted each other with great glee. The king soon after- 
wards arrived from his palace at Sans Souci, and went familiarly 
amongst the scholars, who were afterwards entertained at a long 
table with cakes, chocolate, &c. The rest of us then sat down to 
tea at a couple of tables under the trees, the princess presiding 
and pouring out the tea, the king and the rest partaking unosten- 
tatiously, everybody seated, and with hats and caps on. The king 
speaks English well, is highly educated, said to be clever, but im- 
pulsive, and not practical. He is fifty-two, with a portly figure, 
and a thoroughly good-natured unaffected German face. 

" Met Baron von Humboldt, a still sturdy little man, with a 
clear gray eye, born in 1769, and in his seventy-eighth year; tells 
me he allows himself only four to five hours' sleep. He has a 
fine massive forehead, his manners are courtier-like, he lives in 
the palace of Sans Souci, near the king. He spoke highly of Jef- 
ferson, whom he knew intimately ; remarked of Lord Brougham 
that, like Eaphael, he had three manners, and that he had known 
him in his earliest and best manner. At dusk we entered the 
chateau, sat down at a large round table, and were served with 
a plain supper ; were afterwards conveyed to the railway-station 
in a carriage, and reached Berlin at eleven o'clock." 

1 The present Emperor of Germany. 



2&T.48.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 299 

"Berlin, July 29th. — Went with Mr. Howard to call upon Dr. 
Eichhorn, at present Minister of Public Instruction, but formerly 
in the department of trade, and who took an active part in the 
formation of the Zollverein, an able and enthusiastic man ; he 
stated that the originators of the customs-union did not contem- 
plate the establishment of a protective system ; on the contrary, it 
was distinctly laid down that the duties on foreign goods should 
not as a rule exceed ten per cent. To the opera in the evening, 
and was introduced to M. Nothomb, the Belgian minister, a clever, 
ready man. M. ISTothomb thinks the Corn Laws of Belgium will 
soon be abolished, and says, after the late calamities, arising from 
the scarcity of food, all Europe ought to unite in abolishing for- 
ever every restriction on the corn trade ; he thinks the next min- 
istry in Belgium, although its head will probably be an ardent 
Free Trader, will be obliged to advance still further in the path of 
restriction; that the majority of the chambers is monopolist. 'An 
absolute government may represent an idea, out elective legislatures 
represent interests! The enlightened ministers of Prussia are over- 
ruled by the clamors of the chambers of Wurtemberg, Bavaria, 
and Baden, the majorities of which are protectionist. He re- 
marked that France stood in the way of European progress, for, 
so long as she maintained her prohibitive system, the other nations 
of the continent would be slow to adopt the principles of Free 
Trade." 

" Berlin, July 30th. — Went with Mr. Howard to call on M. 
Kuhne, one of the originators of the Zollverein. When Saxony 
joined it, she objected to the high duties which were payable upon 
foreign goods. Now the manufacturers of that country are wanting 
still higher protection ; he is not of opinion that Hamburgh will 
join the Zollverein ; is not sanguine about effecting any reduction 
of the protective duties ; only hopes to prevent their augmenta- 
tion. M. Kuhne has the character of being an able and honest 
man. To the museum ; the collection of statues and busts but a 
poor affair after seeing the galleries of Italy, and the pictures very 
inferior to those at Dresden or Vienna. Called on M. Dieterici, 
Director of the Bureau of Statistics, an earnest Free Trader, says 
all the leading statesmen of Prussia are opposed to the protective 
system, which is forced upon the Zollverein by the states of the 
south, particularly Bavaria, Baden, and Wurtemberg, and by the 
manufacturers of the Bhenish provinces. Professor Tellkampf 
called ; he says the real object which the. Prussian Government 
has in view, talking of differential duties on navigation to Eng- 
land, is to coerce Holland into a more liberal system, and probably 

to induce her to join the Zollverein In the conversation 

with M. Kuhne he touched upon the state of Ireland, and re- 
marked that society has to be reconstructed in that country ; that 



300 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

we have the work of Cromwell and William to do over again in a 
better manner." 

"Berlin, July 31st. — Several persons called in the morning. 
Went by railway to Potsdam to dine with the king at three 
o'clock at Sans Souci. About twenty-five to thirty persons sat 
down, nearly all in court costume, and most of them in military 
dresses. The king good-humored and affable, very little cere- 
mony, the dinner over at half-past four, when the company 
walked in the garden. On coming away the king shook hands. 
In the evening attended a public dinner given to me by about 
180 Free Traders of Berlin, the mayor of the city in the chair ; 
he commenced the speaking at the second course, and it was kept 
up throughout the dinner, which was prolonged for nearly three 
hours. Two thirds of the meeting appeared to understand my 
English speech, which was afterwards translated into German 
by Dr. Asher. The speeches were rather long, and the auditory 
phlegmatic when compared with an Italian dinner-party. Mr. 
Warren, the United States Consul at Trieste, made the best 
speech, in German. Alluding to my tour in France, Spain, Italy, 
and Germany, he said that no English politician of former times, 
no Chatham, Burke, or Fox, could have obtained those proofs of 
public sympathy in foreign countries which had been offered to 
me ; in their days the politics of one state were considered hos- 
tile to others ; not only each nation was opposed to its neighbor, 
but city was against city, town against country, class was ar- 
ranged against class, and corporations were in hostility to indi- 
vidual rights : he adduced the fact of my favorable reception in 
foreign "countries as a proof of the existence of a broader and 
more generous view of the interests of mankind." 

"Berlin, August 1st. — Baron von Humboldt called, expressed 
in strong and courteous terms his disapproval of Lord Palmerston's 
foreign policy in Portugal and Greece, especially of his demand- 
ing from the latter a peremptory payment of a paltry sum of 
money. I expressed my doubts if the Greeks were at present 
fitted for constitutional self-government, upon which he remarked 
that it was much easier for a nation to preserve its independence 

than its freedom Wrote a note to Dr. Asher declining 

his invitation to address a party of Free Traders, and expressing 
my determination not to interfere in the domestic concerns of 
Prussia." 

" Berlin, August 5th. — The Prussian law of 1818, and the tariff 
which followed it, form the foundation of the German Zollverein. 
The former system of Frederick the Great, and which had lasted 
for upwards of half a century, was one of the most prohibitive 
in respect to the importation of foreign goods ever enforced. 
The prohibition of the entrance of foreign manufactures, even 



Mi. 43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 301 

of those of Saxony, was the rule. Yet the manufactures of 
Eastern Prussia continued to decline ; whilst in Saxony, West- 
phalia, and the Ehenish provinces industry grew up, and flour- 
ished without protection. At the end of fifty years of the trial 

of Frederick's system/such was the result The law of 26th 

of May, 1818, sets forth freedom of commerce as the fundamental 
principle of the new system of customs ; it enacted that as a rule 
the duty on foreign manufactures shall not exceed ten per cent 
ad valorem according to the average prices." 

" Stettin, August 7th. — Took leave of Kate this morning at the 
Hamburgh railway, and then started for Stettin at seven, in com- 
pany with Mr. Swaine. The railway passes through a poor 
sandy country thinly peopled, and with light crops of grain. 
The exportation of corn was prohibited this year from Prus- 
sia, also of potatoes in May ; one of the ministers stated in the 
Diet publicly that the latter measure could be of no use, inas- 
much as at that time no potatoes could be sent out of the coun- 
try with advantage, but advocating the law on the plea that it 
was necessary to tranquillize the people ; the use of potatoes 
was also interdicted in distilleries for three months, by which the 
food for cattle (the residue of the potatoes) was curtailed, and 
caused great embarrassment to the proprietors In the even- 
ing dined with about eighty or ninety persons, who assembled 
at a day's notice to meet me; the company sat at dinner for 
nearly four hours ; speeches between each course ; the orators 
launched freely into politics." 

" Stettin, August 8th. — The Baltic ports are in no way bene- 
fited by the manufacturing interests of the south and the Ehen- 
ish provinces, and they are directly sacrificed by the protective 
system. The few furnaces for making iron in Silesia, and those 
on the Ehine, have imposed a tax upon the whole community, 
by laying on a duty of 20s. a ton upon pig iron. Silesia is a 
wheat-growing country for export. The protective duties of the 
Zollverein are particularly injurious to the Baltic provinces of 
Prussia, which export wheat, timber, and other raw produce. 
The manufacturing districts of Ehenish Prussia are entirely cut 
off and detached from this part of the kingdom ; they receive 
their imports and send out their exports by the Ehine, not 
through a Prussian port ; thus the protective system stands in 
the way of the increase of the foreign trade in the Prussian ports, 
and stops the growth of the mercantile marine, without even 
offering the compensation of an artificial trade in manufactures. 
In fact, owing to her peculiar geographical position, the mari- 
time prosperity of Prussia is more completely sacrificed than in 
any other State by the protective system." 

" Dantzic, August 10th, 1847. — .... Dined with about fifty 



302 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847- 

of the merchants. Nearly all appeared to understand English, 
several speakers, all in English, excepting one. There are about 
five or six British merchants only here — mostly Scotch. Dantzic 
is thoroughly English in its sympathies." 

" Togroggen, Russia, August loth. — Left Konigsberg at seven 
o'clock this morning in an extra post courier in company with 
one of Mr. Adelson's clerks, whom he kindly sent with me across 
the Eussian frontier. 

" My companion, who is a Pole and a Eussian subject, and, as 
he terms himself, an Israelite, gives me a poor picture of the 
character of the Polish nobility. Making a comparison between 
them and the Eussians, he remarked that the latter are barbarians, 
but the former are civilized scamps ; there is some respect for 
truth in the Eussian, but none in the Pole. Crossed the Niemen 
at Tilsit ; were detained upon the bridge of boats for half an hour 
whilst several long rafts of timber passed ; the men who were 
upon them, and who live for months upon the voyage clown from 
Volhynia to Memel on these floats, had a wild, savage appearance, 
reminding me of the Irish. Soon after, reached the Eussian 
frontier. I rallied my companion on his rather thoughtful aspect 
on approaching his native country. ' It is not exactly fear that I 
feel,' he replied, ' but I do find a disagreeable sensation here,' 
striking his breast; 'perhaps it is something in the air which 
always affects me at this spot.' Arrived at Togroggen at eight 
o'clock, the distance from Konigsberg being about a hundred 
English miles. The chief of the Custom House was very civil, 
and declined to search my luggage. 

"Riga, August 16th. — The distance from Togroggen to Eiga is 
about 220 versts, or about 160 miles, which are accomplished 
in eighteen hours exactly, at an expense of 42s. The country 
generally a plain as far as the eye can reach, with here and there 
only some slight undulations ; mostly a light soil and sandy, but 
everywhere capable of cultivation. Large tracts covered with 
forests of fir, interspersed with oak, birch, &c, with patches here 
and there of cultivated land. The country very thinly peopled ; 
the villages consist of a few wooden houses thatched ; scarcely 
saw a stone or brick house. The villages through which we 
passed on the high road on the beginning of our journey were 
generally peopled with Jews, a dirty, idle-looking people, the men 
wearing long robes with a girdle, and the women often with 
turbans, the men also wearing the long beard. These wretched 
beings creep about their wretched villages, or glance suspiciously 
out of their doors, as if they had a suspicion of some danger at 
every step. They never work with their hands in the fields or on 
the roads excepting to avert actual starvation." 

" St. Petersburgh, Aug. 20th. — Called on Count Nesselrode, the 



.Et.43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 303 

Foreign Minister, a polite little man of sixty-five, with a profusion 
of smiles. Like Metternich, lie strikes me more as an adept at 
finesse and diplomacy, than as a man of genius or of powerful 
talent. He was very, very civil, spoke of my Free Trade labors, 
which he said would be beneficial to Eussia, offered me letters to 
facilitate my journey to Moscow, and invited me to dine. Called 
on Lord Bloomfield, our minister, an agreeable man." 

"St. Petersburgh, Aug. 21st. — Went at six o'clock, in company 
with Colonel Townsend, Captain Little, and another, to see the 
grand parade, about twenty-five versts from St. Petersburgh. 
The Emperor, the finest man in the field ; the Empress, a very 
emaciated, care-worn person, resembling in her melancholy ex- 
pression the Queen of the French. It is remarkable that two of 
the most unhappy and suffering countenances, and the most 
attenuated frames I have seen on the continent, are those of these 
two royal personages, the wives of the greatest sovereigns of the 
continent, who have accidentally ascended thrones to which they 
were not claimants by the right of succession ; yet these victims 
of anxiety are envied as the favorites of fortune." 

" Moscow, Aug. 25th. — Started from St. Petersburgh on Sunday 
morning, at seven, and reached this place at six this morning. 
During the first day, passed through several villages built entirely 
of wood, generally of logs laid horizontally upon each other ; 
some of these are not without efforts at refinement, being orna- 
mented with rude carved work, and the fronts sometimes gaudily 
painted. Many of the houses appeared quite new, and others 
were in the course of erection ; it being Sunday, the inhabitants 
were in their best clothes ; work seemed everywhere suspended. 
There appears a great traffic between the old and new metropolis, 
both in merchandise and passengers ; mail coaches, diligences, 
and private carriages, very numerous. The face of the country 
flat and monotonous ; a strip of cultivated land, growing rye, oats, 
&c, runs generally along the roadside, and beyond, the eye rests 
upon the eternal pine forests. The inns at the post stations 
excellent ; in two of them the walls of the rooms were covered 
with English engravings of Morland's village scenes ; tea every- 
where good, and served promptly, in the English fashion. On 
alighting I saw about thirty men, lying on two rows upon the 
pavement, in the open air, wrapped in their coats or sheepskins, 
some of their heads resting on a pillow of hay, and others upon 
the rough stones. I was told, on inquiry, that they were postil- 
ions waiting to be called up, as their services might be required 
— a hard life." 

" Moscow, August 25th. — After a couple of hours' sleep in a 
clean and comfortable bed at Howard's English lodging-house, 
I sallied out alone for a stroll of an hour or two. This city 



304 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

surprises me ; I was not prepared for so interesting and unique a 
spectacle. One might fancy himself in Bagdad or Grenada 
a thousand years ago. The people are more Asiatic in their 
appearance and dress than at St. Petersburgh, and also more 
superstitious, I should say, judging from the ceremonials of bow- 
ing and crossing which I see going on at every church door, and 
opposite to every little picture of the Virgin. Everywhere struck 
with astonishment at the novel and beautiful features of this 
picturesque city of the Czars." 

" Nishni Novogorod, August 27th. — Left Moscow at half-past 
seven on Wednesday evening in the same carriage by which I had 
come from St. Petersburgh. It was dusk when I passed beyond 
the suburbs of the widely extended city of upwards of 300,000 
souls. The next morning's light revealed the same scenery as 
that through which I had passed previously ; the country so fiat 
and the view so constantly bounded with straight lines of fir 
forests, that I was frequently under the illusion that the ocean 

was visible in the distant horizon Reached Nishni Novogo- 

rod at six o'clock this evening, and passed through a long avenue 
of wooden booths full of merchandise, and amidst crowds of 
people to the hotel, where I found comfortable quarters. Baron 
Alexander Meyendorff called, chief of a kind of Board of Trade 
at Moscow, an active-minded and intelligent German, possessing 
much statistical knowledge about Russian trade and manufac- 
tures. .... He thinks the geographical and climatical features 
of Russia will always prevent its being anything but a great 
village, as he termed it, it being such a vast, unbroken plain ; 
there are no varieties of climate or occupations, and as the weather 
is intensely cold for half the year, every person wants double the 
quantity of land which would suffice to maintain him in more 
genial climates ; as there is no coal, the pine forests are as neces- 
sary as his rye field. Wherever the winter endures for upwards 
of half the year, the population must as a general rule be thin." 

" Nishni Novogorod, August 28th. — The Bokhara caravan ar- 
rived yesterday, bringing about a thousand hundredweight of 
cotton from Asia, of a short staple like our Surats, with skins, 
common prints, dressing-gowns of silk, and other articles. I 
visited three merchants, some of them handsome swarthy men ; 
their goods were brought upon camels as far as Orenberg ; the 
journey from Bokhara to Nishni occupies about three months. 
This caravan had been stopped by a tribe of the Kirghese. One 
of these men, a knowing, talkative fellow, had been in London 
and picked up a few words of English. In the evening dined and 
took tea with Baron A. de Meyendorff, and met Baronoff, the great 

printer and manufacturer, an energetic and sensible man 

. He has taken some land on lease in the territory of the Khan of 



JIt.43.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 305 

Khiva for growing madder for his print-works; he says that 
the madder he gets from Asia is cheaper than that which he 
formerly got from France and Holland, in the proportion of two 
and a half to one." 

"Moscow, Aug. olst. — Found my companion a man of great 
good-nature, and full of information upon the commerce and 
manufactures of Eussia. 

" . . . . The Emperor and the higher functionaries of the Gov- 
ernment are anxious for good administration, and they are all 
enlightened and able men, but the subordinates or bureaucracy 
are generally a corrupt or ignorant body. There are three or 
four grave difficulties for the future — the emancipation of the 
serfs — the religious tone, which is one of mere unmeaning for- 
malities, and which, if not adapted to the progress of ideas, will 
become a cause of infidelity on the one hand, and blind bigotry 
on the other — the tiers-etat, comprising the freed serfs, the manu- 
facturers, and the bureaucracy : all these are elements tending to 
dangerous collisions of opinion for the future, unless gradually 
provided against by the Government. 

" .... At Bogorodsk we paid a visit to the halting station of 
prisoners who are on their way from Moscow to Siberia ; upwards 
of twenty were lying upon wooden benches, their heads resting 
upon bundles of clothes. Baron Meyendorff questioned them as 
to the cause of their banishment ; three confessed that theirs was 
murder, and another coining : several were for smaller offences ; the 
latter were not ironed like the greater criminals. One man said 
he was exiled because he had no passport, which meant that he 
was a vagabond. One man was recognized by the Baron as 
having been a servant in a nobleman's family which he was 
acquainted with, and he stated, in answer to the inquiry, that he 
was sent to Siberia because he was ill-tempered to his owner and 
master; this man, like all the rest, seemed to be in a state of 
mental resignation quite oriental. ' If God has allowed me to be 
banished, I suppose I deserve it,' was his remark. In another 
room was a prisoner, a nobleman, as he was called, who confessed 
to the Baron that poverty had led him to commit an act of for- 
gery ; he was not ironed, nor was his head shaved like the rest. 
In a third room were two women ; one of them said her offence 
was being without a passport ; the other was a woman who stated 
herself to be a widow, and whose little daughter, a child about 
seven years of age, was sleeping upon a bundle of old clothes at 
her side. She said she was banished at the request of her mis- 
tress, she being her serf, because she was ill-tempered. I gave 
these poor women some silver. 

" . . . . On leaving the mill, a few steps brought me into the 
midst of the agricultural operations in the neighborhood, and- 

20 






306 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

what a contrast did the implements of husbandry present to the 
masterpieces of machinery which I had just been inspecting ! 
The ploughs were constructed upon the model of those in use a 
thousand years ago ; the scythes and reaping-hooks might have 
been the implements of the ancient Scythians ; the spades in the 
hands of the peasants were either entirely of wood or merely 
tipped with iron ; the fields were yielding scarcely a third of the 
crop of grain which an English farmer would derive from similar 
land ; there was no science traceable in the manuring or cropping 
of the land, no intelligence in the improving of the breed of the 
cattle, and I could not help asking myself by what perversity 
of judgment an agricultural people could be led to borrow from 
England its newest discoveries in machinery for spinning cotton, 
and to reject the lessons which it offered for the improvement of 
that industry upon which the wealth and strength of the Russian 
empire so pre-eminently depend. 

"..... Baron Meyendorff tells me that an association of mer- 
chants proposes to export a cargo of Eussian manufactures to the 
Pacific as an experiment, and amongst the articles which they 
think of sending are boots and shoes, sail-cloth, cordage, low- 
priced woollens, linen towels, coarse linens, such as ravenduck ; 
articles made of wood, such as boxes, &c. ; and nails, &c. Here 
are many manufactured products which are natural to Eussia, 
and who can say how much the development of such indigenous 
industries may be interfered with by the protection of cotton 
goods, &c. ? Baron Meyendorff considers Eussia more favored 
than any other country in the production of wools. In Eussia 
there are public granaries in every commune, in which, according 
to law, there ought always to be a store of grain kept for the 
safety of the people against scarcity ; this, like all their laws in 
this great empire, is little more than waste paper. Instead of 
ordering the erection of public granaries, the Government would 
have done more wisely to have devoted its attention to the con- 
struction of roads by which grain could have circulated more 
freely in- the country, and thus have prevented the occasional 
famine in one part of the empire whilst there is a glut in another. 
If roads were made in Eussia, the merchants and dealers in grain 
would supply the wants of any particular district by equalizing 
the supply of all." 

" St. Petersburgh, Sept. 7th. — Some time ago a Yankee adven- 
turer asked permission to establish a hunting station on the 
North American territory belonging to Eussia, but it was refused. 
A year or two after this occurred, Baron Meyendorff happened to 
be calling upon his friend the home minister, who, putting a let- 
ter into his hand, remarked, ' Here is something to amuse you ; it 
has occasioned me half an hour's incessant laughter.' It was a 



jEt.48.] TOUR OVER EUROPE. 307 

despatch from the governor of Irkutsk, describing in pompous 
language an 'invasion/ which had taken place in the North 
American territory of the Eussian empire by an armed force, 
consisting of from eighty to one hundred men, commanded by 
an American, and having three pieces of artillery. It was the 
Yankee fur-trader, who had taken French leave and squatted 
himself upon the most favorable situation in the Czar's dominions 
for carrying on his hunting operations. The question arose how 
he was to be ejected. There was no Eussian armed force or au- 
thority of any kind within many hundreds, perhaps thousand, 
miles of the invading army. The expense of fitting out an ar- 
mament for the purpose was then calculated, but the distance 
and the difficulty of approaching the Yankee head-quarters were 
such formidable obstacles, that it was thought better to leave the 
enemy in possession of his conquered territory, and there he re- 
mains now, carrying on his operations against the bears and the 
beavers of the Czar without molestation. This gives an idea 
of the weakness of a government whose dominions extend to 
upwards of a twelvemonth's journey from its capital." 

"St. Petersburgh, Sept. 11th. — . . . . Dined at the English 
club, and met a party of Eussians ; they rise from table as soon 
as they have swallowed their dinner, and proceed to the card- 
table, billiards, or skittles. There is no intellectual society, no 
topic of general interest is discussed — an un-idea'd party. My 
table companions, the English merchants, were of opinion that 
extensive smuggling is carried on, particularly in sugar; they 
spoke freely of the corruption of the employes, and the general 
propensity to live beyond their means. One of them mentioned 
an anecdote of the corruption of the government employes. He 
had a contract with one of the departments for a quantity of lig- 
num vitce at eight roubles a pood ; upon its being delivered it was 
pronounced inferior, and rejected after being stamped at the end 
of each log ; he called at the bureau to complain and remonstrate, 
but without success ; and on leaving was followed by a person 
who asked his address and said he would call upon him. He 
was as good as his word, and the following conversation oc- 
curred : ' You have charged your wood too low ; it is not possible 
to furnish a good quality at eight roubles; you must send in 
another delivery at twelve roubles.' ' But I have no other qual- 
ity,' was the reply. ' Leave that to me,' said the person. ' You 
must address a petition to the department, saying that you are 
prepared to send in another delivery ; I will draw up the peti- 
tion, you must sign it ; I will manage the rest, and you will pay 
me 1000 roubles, which will be half the difference of the extra 
price you will receive.' He consulted with his friends, who ad- 
vised him to comply, and he accordingly signed the petition. The 



308 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

person then had the rejected lignum vita? conveyed to. a ware- 
house where the ends were sawed off the logs to remove the 
stamp, and the identical wood was delivered, and passed for full 
weight and good quality." 

" St. Petersburgh, Sept. 12th. — Went in the morning to the 
Kasan Cathedral, where I found a full congregation, two thirds 
at least being men. Went with Mr. Edwards by railway to see 
the horse races at Tsarskoe Selo ; a large proportion of the persons 
who went by the train were English. The Emperor and his 
family and a good muster of fashionables were present on the 
course, but the amusements wanted life and animation, which 
nothiug but a mass of people capable of feeling and expressing 
an interest in the sports of the day can present. Afterwards 
went to the Vauxhall of Petersburgh to dine. An Englishman 
accosted me in a broad Devonshire accent, and said he was a free- 
man of Tavistock, and would give me a plumper if I came there 
as a candidate. Met another man from Stockport who is in a 
cotton mill here ; he says it works from six a. m. to eight p. m., 
stopping for an hour ; that the engine runs thirteen hours a day ; 
says double the number of hands, as compared with the English 
mills, are employed to produce a given result ; the English laborer 
is the cheapest in Europe." 

"St. Petersburgh, . Sept. 13th. — Mr. Edwards, attache to the 
English ministry, mentioned an anecdote illustrative of the inor- 
dinate self-complacency of my countrymen. They complained to 
him that at the Commercial Association, a kind of club consist- 
ing of natives and English, the air of : Eule Britannia ' had been 
hissed by the Eussians ; they were discomposed at the idea of 
foreigners being averse to the naval domination of England ! " 

"St. Petersburgh, Sept. 15th. — Paid a visit to the Minister bf 
Finance ; he invited me to speak to him frankly as to my opinions 
on the manufactures of Eussia, and I profited by the opportunity 
of making a Free Trade speech to him of half an hour's length. 
He was reported to me as an incompetent, ignorant man, but he 
has at least the merit of being willing to learn ; he listened like a 
man of good common sense, and his observations were very much 
to the point. M. de Boutowsky called, who has written a work 
upon political economy and in favor of Free Trade, in the Bussian 
language. In the course of the conversation he remarked that 
Peter the Great commenced the system of regulating and inter- 
fering with trade and manufactures in Eussia. Another instance 
added to those of Cromwell, Frederick the Great, Louis XIV., 
Napoleon, and Mehemet Ali, showing that warriors and despots 
are generally bad economists, and that they instinctively carry 
their ideas of force and violence into the civil policy of their gov- 
ernments. Free Trade is a principle which recognizes the para- 



Mt. 43.] ' TOUR OVER EUROPE. 309 

mount advantage of individual action. Military conquerors, on 
the contrary, trust only to the organized efforts of bodies of men 
directed by their own personal will. 

" Dined with Count Nesselrode, and sat beside Count Kisseleff, 
one of the ablest of the ministers, having the direction of the 
public domains. After dinner, other persons of rank joined us in 
the drawing-room, and we had a lively discussion upon Free Trade. 
Count Kisseleff talked freely and without much knowledge of the 
question, whilst Nesselrode sat quietly with the rest of the com- 
pany listening to the controversy. My opponents were moderate 
in their pretensions, and made a stand only for the protection of 
industries in their infancy. All parties threw overboard cotton- 
spinning as an exotic which ought not to be encouraged in Russia. 
A Free Trade debate in Nesselrode's drawing-room must at least 
have been a novelty." 

"St. Petersburgh, Sept. 23d. — Called by invitation upon Prince 
Oldenburgh, cousin of the Emperor, a man of amiable and intelli- 
gent mind, a patron of schools and charities. He spoke with 
affection and admiration of England, of its people, their religious 
and moral character, their public spirit and domestic virtues. 
Speaking of Russia, he said that its two greatest evils were cor- 
ruption and drunkenness. Was entertained at a public dinner 
by about two hundred merchants and others at the establishment 
of mineral waters in one of the islands ; a fine hall, prettily deco- 
rated, and with a band of music in an adjoining room. After I 
had spoken, an Englishman named Hodgson, manager of Loader's 
spinning mill, who was formerly a Radical orator in England, 
addressed the meeting, pretty much in "the style of some of my 
old Chartist opponents in England, which afforded me an oppor- 
tunity of replying to him, greatly to the satisfaction of the meet- 
ing. I was struck with the freedom of speech and absence of 
restraint which pervaded the meeting, and which contrasted with 
the timidity I had sometimes seen in Italy and Austria. The 
meeting went off well, and everybody seemed well satisfied. Such 
a numerous party had never assembled at a public dinner in St. 
Petersburgh." 

" Lubeck, Sept. 29th. — Left Cronstadt at two o'clock on Sunday 
morning, 26th, by the ' Nicolai ' steamer, and after a favorable 
passage without adventures of any kind reached Travenmunde at 
eight o'clock this morning. My head was too much disturbed by 
the sea voyage to be fit for numerous introductions, so after break- 
fasting and resting a few hours, I proceeded in company with our 
Consul, who had been so good as to come down to meet me, to 
Lubeck, a pleasant drive of nine miles." 

" Lubeck, Sept. 30th. — Captain Stanley Carr called ; he has a 
large estate about four miles distant, which he has occupied for 



310 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847 

twenty years, and cultivates with great success upon the English 
system. He has a thousand acres under the plough, a small 
steam-engine for thrashing, and all the best implements. He 
says he employs three times as many people as were at work 
upon the land before he bought it ; he raises four times as much 
produce ; has drained and subsoiled the farm ; sells his butter and 
cattle at twenty-five per cent higher prices than his neighbors. 
Speaking of his visit to Bohemia, where he spent three months of 
last year, he said the agriculture was in a very wretched state. 
The peasants were without capital, and the corvee system pre- 
vailed, by which the landlord's land was cultivated so badly by 
the peasantry that he would not accept an estate at a gift, to 
be obliged to work it upon that system. He told me an anecdote 
of a man engaged in the manufactory of iron in that country, 
who complained of the competition of the English, who • paid the 
freight to Hamburgh, and then the expense of carrying it up the 
Elbe to Bohemia, and then,' he added, ' they undersell me twenty- 
five per cent at my own door, and be d — d to them ! ' In con- 
sequence of which he went off to Vienna to call for higher 
protection to the iron manufacture, by way of supporting ' native 
industry '!.... In the evening was entertained by a party of 
about seventy merchants and others of Lubeck at a public dinner. 
After dinner went to ' the cellar ' under the Town Hall, a famous 
resort for the people, where they drink beer, sing, arid listen to 
music. On descending into these vaults, I was enveloped in 
clouds of smoke. At one end was a band of music ; in another 
recess was a festive meeting of the German savans, some of whom, 
with their wives, were seated at tables ; others were crowded 
round a speaker, who was addressing them, whilst almost invisible 
in a cloud of smoke. It resembled a midnight scene in a ' coal- 
hole ' or ' finis ' in London — yet in this odd place was to be found 
a hundred of the first professors and literary men of Germany. I 
was introduced to Grimm, the famous critic and linguist." 

"Hamburgh, Oct. 5th, 1847. — In the evening dined with about 
seven hundred persons at a Free Trade banquet ; Mr. Euperti in 
the chair. Sat down at half-past five, and the dinner and speeches 
lasted till ten. The speakers were free in the range of their 
topics, advocated the freedom of the press, quizzed the regulations 
of the city of Hamburgh, and turned into ridicule the Congress of 
Vienna and the Germanic Diet." 

"Manchester, Oct. 12th. — Left the Elbe on Saturday morning, 
9th, and reached London on Monday at eleven o'clock. Was told 
on board that the steamers carry cattle from Hamburgh to London 
for thirty shillings a head, and sheep for three shillings. Slept at 
the Victoria Hotel, Euston Square, on Monday, and left for Man- 
chester by the six o'clock train on Tuesday, reaching home at 
three o'clock." 



Mt. 43.] ELECTION FOIl THE WEST RIDING. 311 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ELECTION FOR THE WEST RIDING. — PURCHASE OF DUNFORD. — 
CORRESPONDENCE 

During Cobden's absence in the autumn of 1847, a general elec- 
tion had taken place. While he was at St. Petersburg he learned 
that he had been returned not only for his former borough of 
Stockport, but for the great constituency of the West Riding of 
Yorkshire. He wrote to thank Mr. Bright for his powerful and 
friendly services at the election. "But I cannot conceal from 
you," he went on to say, " that my return for the West Riding has 
very much embarrassed and annoyed me. Personally and pub- 
licly speaking, I should have preferred Stockport. It is the great- 
est compliment ever offered to a public man ; but had I been 
consulted, I should have respectfully declined." 1 After the com- 
pliment had actually been conferred, it was too late to refuse it, 
and Cobden represented the West Riding in two Parliaments, 
until the political crash came in 1857. The triumph of Cobden's 
election for the great Yorkshire constituency was matched by the 
election of Mr. Bright for Manchester, in spite of the active and 
unscrupulous efforts of some old-fashioned Liberals. They pre- 
tended to find him violent and reckless, he wanted social position, 
and so forth. For the time they were swept away by the over- 
whelming wave of Mr. Bright's popularity, but they nursed their 
wrath and had their revenge ten years afterwards. 

Another important step had been taken while Cobden was 
abroad. His business was brought to an end, and the affairs relat- 
ing to it wound up by one or two of his friends. A considerable 
portion of the sum which had been subscribed for the national 
testimonial to him, had been absorbed in settling outstanding 
claims. With a part of what remained Cobden, immediately after 
his return from his travels, purchased the small property at Dun- 
ford on which he was born. He gave up his house in Manchester, 
and when in London lived for some years to come at Westbourne 
Terrace. Afterwards, he lived in lodgings during the session, or 
more frequently accepted quarters at the house of one of his more 
intimate friends, Mr. Hargreaves, Mr. Schwabe, or Mr. Paulton. 
His home was henceforth at Dunford. His brother Frederick, 
who had shared the failure of their fortunes at Manchester, took 
up his abode with him and remained until his death in 1858. 

i Sept. 18, 1847. 



312 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

Five or six years after the acquisition of his little estate, Cobden 
pulled down the ancestral farm-house, and built a modest resi- 
dence upon the site. In this for the rest of his life he passed all 
the time that he could spare from public labors. Once in these 
days, Cobden was addressing a meeting at Aylesbury. He talked 
of the relations of landlord and tenant, and referred by way of 
illustration to his own small property. Great is the baseness of 
men. Somebody in the crowd called out to ask him how he had 
got his property. " I am indebted for it," said Cobden, with 
honest readiness, " to the bounty of my countrymen. It was the 
scene of my birth and my infancy ; it was the property of my 
ancestors ; and it is by the munificence of my countrymen that 
this small estate, which had been alienated from my father by 
necessity, has again come into my hands, and enabled me to light 
up afresh the hearth of my father where I spent my own child- 
hood. I say that no warrior duke who owns a vast domain by 
the vote of the Imperial Parliament, holds his property by a more 
honorable title than I possess mine." 2 If the baseness of men is 
great, so too is their generosity of response to a magnanimous 
appeal, and the boisterous cheering of the crowd showed that they 
felt Cobden' s answer to be good and sufficient. 

The following is Cobden's own account, at the time, of the 
country in which he had once more struck a little root. He is 
writing to Mr. Ashworth : — 

" Midhurst, Oct. 7, 1850. — I have been for some weeks in one 
of the most secluded corners of England. Although my letter is 
dated from the, quiet little close borough of Midhurst, the house 
in which I am living is about one and a half miles distant, in the 
neighboring rural parish of Heyshott. The roof which now 
shelters me is that under which I was born, and the room where 
I now sleep is the one in which I first drew breath. It is an old 
farm-house, which had for many years been turned into laborers' 
cottages. With the aid of the whitewasher and carpenter, we 
have made a comfortable weather-proof retreat for summer ; and we 
are surrounded with pleasant woods, and within a couple of miles 
of the summit of the South Down hills, where we have the finest 
air and some of the prettiest views in England. At some future 
day I shall be delighted to initiate you into rural life. A Sussex 
hillside village will be an interesting field for an exploring excur- 
sion for you. We have a population under three hundred in our 
parish. The acreage is about 2000, of which one proprietor, Colo- 
nel Wyndham, owns 1200 acres. He is a non-resident, as indeed 
are all the other proprietors. The clergyman is also non-resident. 
He lives at the village of Sledham, about three miles distant, 

1 Speeches, i. 440. Jan. 9, 1850. In the same place will be found his account 
of the way in which he dealt with his laud. 



aSr.43.] PURCHASE OF DUNFORD. 313 

where he has another living and a parsonage-house. He conies 
over to our parish to perform service once on Sundays, alternately 
in the morning and afternoon. The church is in a ruinous state, 
the tower having fallen down many years ago. The parson draws 
about 300/. a year in tithes, besides the produce of a few acres of 
glebe land. He is a decent man, with a large family, spoken well 
of by everybody, and himself admits the evils of clerical absentee- 
ism. We have no school and no schoolmaster, unless I give that 
title to a couple of cottages where illiterate old women collect a 
score or two of infants whilst their parents are in the fields. Thus 
' our village ' is without resident proprietors or clergyman or 
schoolmaster. Add to these disadvantages, that the farmers are 
generally deficient of capital, and do not employ so many laborers 
as they might. The rates have been up to this time about six 
shillings in the pound. ■ We are not under the new poor law, but 
in a Gilbert's Union, and almost all our expense is for outdoor 
relief. 

" Here is a picture which will lead you to expect when you 
visit us a very ignorant and very poor population. There is no 
post-office in the village. Every morning an old man, aged about 
seventy, goes into Midhurst for the letters. He charges a penny 
for every despatch he carries, including such miscellaneous articles 
as horse 'collars, legs of mutton, empty sacks, and wheelbarrows. 
His letter-bag for the whole village contains on an average from 
two to three letters daily, including newspapers. The only news- 
papers which enter the parish are two copies of Bell's Weekly 
Messenger, a sound old Tory Protectionist much patronized by 
drowsy farmers. The wages paid by the farmers are very low, not 
exceeding eight shillings a week. I am employing an old man 
nearly seventy, and his son about twenty-two, and his nephew 
about nineteen, at digging and removing some fences. I pay the 
two former nine shillings a week and the last eight shillings, and 
I am giving a shilling a week more than anybody else is paying. 
What surprises me is to observe how well the poor fellows work, 
and how long they last. The South Down air, in the absence of 
South Down mutton, has something to do with the healthiness of 
these people, I dare say. The laborers have generally a garden, 
and an allotment of a quarter of an acre ; for the latter they pay 
three and ninepence a year rent. We are in the midst of woods, 
and on the borders of common land, so that fuel is cheap. All 
the poor have a right to cut turf on the common for their firing, 
which costs two shillings and threepence per thousand. The 
laborers who live in my cottages have pigs in their sties, but I 
believe it is not so universally. I have satisfied myself that, how- 
ever badly off the laborers may be at present, their condition was 
worse in the time of high-priced corn. In 1847, when bread was 



314 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847, 

double its present price, the wages of the farm laborers were not 
raised more than two to three shillings a week. At that time a 
man with a family spent all he earned for bread, and still had not 
enough to sustain his household. I have it both from the laborers 
themselves and the millers from whom they buy their flour, that 
they ran so deeply in debt, for food during the high prices of 1847, 
that they have scarcely been able in some cases up to the present 
to pay off their score. The class feeling amongst the agricultural 
laborers is in favor of a cheap loaf. They dare not say much 
about it openly, but their instincts are serving them in the absence 
of economical knowledge, and they are unanimously against 
Chowler and the Protectionists. 

" I can hardly pretend that in this world's-end spot we can say 
that any impulse has been given to the demand for agricultural 
laborers by the Free Trade policy. Ours- is about the last place 
which will feel its good effects. But there is one good sign which 
augurs well for the future. Skilled laborers, such as masons, 
joiners, blacksmiths, painters, and so on, are in very great request, 
and it is difficult to get work of that kind done in moderate time. 
1 am inclined to think that in more favorable situations ah impulse 
has likewise been imparted to unskilled labor. It is certain that 
during the late harvest-time there was a great difficulty in obtain- 
ing hands on the south side of the Downs towards the sea-coast, 
where labor is in more demand than here under the north side of 
the hills. I long to live to see an agricultural laborer strike for 
wages ! " 

Before he had been many weeks in England, Cobden was drawn 
into the eager discussion of other parts of his policy, which were 
fully as important as Free Trade itself. The substitution of Lord 
Palmerston for Lord Aberdeen at the Foreign Office was instantly 
followed by the active intervention of the British Government in 
the affairs of other countries. There was an immediate demand 
for increased expenditure on armaments. Augmented expenditure 
meant augmented taxation. Each of the three items of the pro- 
gramme was the direct contradictory of the system which Cobden 
believed to be not only expedient but even indispensable. His 
political history from this time down to the year when they both 
died, is one long antagonism to the ideas which were concentrated 
in Lord Palmerston. Yet Cobden was too reasonable to believe 
that there could be a material reduction in armaments, until a 
great change had taken place in the public opinion of the country 
with respect to its foreign policy. He always said that no Minister 
could reduce armaments or expenditure, until the English people 
abandoned the notion that they were to regulate the affairs of the 
world. " In all my travels," he wrote to Mr. Bright, " three re- 
flections constantly occur to me : how much unnecessary solicitude 



JBr.48.] CORRESPONDENCE. 315 

and alarm England devotes to the affairs of foreign countries ; with 
how little knowledge we enter upon the task of regulating the 
concerns of other people ; and how much better we might employ 
our energies in improving matters at home." 1 He knew that the 
influential opinion of the country was still against him, and that 
it would be long before it turned. " Until that time," he said, in 
words which may be usefully remembered by politicians who are 
fain to reap before they have sown, " I am content to be on this 
question, as I have been on others, in a minority, and in a minority 
to remain, until I get a majority." 

While he was away that famous intrigue known as the Spanish 
Marriages took place. The King of the French, guided by the 
austere and devout Guizot, so contrived the marriages of the Queen 
of Spain and her sister, that in the calculated default of issue from 
the Queen, the crown of Spain would go to the issue of her sister 
and the Duke of Montpensier, Louis Philippe's son. Cobden, as 
we shall see, did not believe that the King was looking so far as this. 
It was in any case a disgraceful and odious transaction, but events 
very speedily proved how little reason there was why it should 
throw the English Foreign Office into a paroxysm. Cobden was 
moved to write to Mr. Bright upon it : — 

" My object in writing again is to speak upon the Marriage 
question. I have seen with humiliation that the daily newspaper 
press of England has been lashing the public mind into an excite- 
ment (or at least trying to do so) upon the alliance of the Duke of 
Montpensier with the Infanta. I saw this boy and girl married, 
and as I looked at them, I could not help exclaiming to myself, 
' What a couple to excite the animosity of the people of England 
and France ! ' Have we not outgrown the days when sixty millions 
of people could be set at loggerheads by a family intrigue ? Yes, 
we have probably grown wiser than to repeat the War of Succession, 
but I see almost as great an evil as actual hostilities in the tone of 
the press and the intrigues of the diplomatists of England and 
France. They keep the two nations in a state of distrust and alien- 
ation, they familiarize us with the notion that war is still a pos- 
sible event, and worse still, they furnish the pretext for continually 
augmenting our standing armaments, and thus oppressing and de- 
grading the people with taxation, interrupting the progress of fiscal 
reforms, and keeping us in a hostile attitude ready for war. 

" I began my political life by writing against this system of 
foreign interference, and every year's experience confirms me in 
my early impression that it lies at the bottom of much of our mis- 
government at home. My visit to Spain has strengthened if pos- 
sible a hundredfold my conviction that all attempts of England to 

* To Mr. Bright. Sept. 18, 1847. 



316 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1847. 

control or influence the destinies, political and social, of that 
country are worse than useless. They are mischievous alike to 
Spaniards and Englishmen. They are a peculiar people not under- 
stood by us. They have one characteristic, however, which their 
whole history might have revealed to us, i. e. their inveterate re- 
pugnance to all foreign influences and alliances, and their uncon- 
querable resistance to foreign control. No country in Europe 
besides is so isolated in its prejudices of race and caste. It has 
ever been so, whether in the times of the Eomans, of the Saracens, 
of Louis XIV., or of Napoleon. No people are more willing to 
call in the aid of foreign arms or diplomacy to fight their battles, 
but they despise and suspect the motives of all who come to help 
them, and they turn against them the moment their temporary 
purpose is gained. As for any other nation permanently swaying 
the destinies of Spain, or finding in it an ally to be depended on 
against other Powers, it would be as easy to gain such an object 
with the Bedouins of the Desert, with whom, by the way, the 
Spaniards have no slight affinity of character. No one who knows 
the people, nobody who has read their history, can doubt this ; 
and yet our diplomatists and newspaper-writers are pretending 
alarm at the marriage of the youngest son of Louis Philippe with 
the Infanta, on the ground of the possible future union of the two 
countries under one head, or at least under one influence. No- 
body knows the absurdity of any such contingency better than 
Louis Philippe. He feels, no doubt, that it is difficult enough to 
secure one throne permanently for his dynasty, and unless his 
sagacity be greatly overrated, he would shrink from the possibility 
of one of his descendants ever attempting to wear at the same 
time the crowns of Spain and France. I believe the French King- 
to have had but one object, — to secure a rich wife for his younger 
son. He is perhaps a little avaricious in his old age, like most 
other men. But I care nothing for his motives or policy. Looking 
to the facts, I ask why should the French and English people 
allow themselves to be embroiled by such family manoeuvres ? He 
may have been treacherous to our Queen, but why should kings 
and queens be allowed to enter into any marriage compacts in the 
name of their people ? You will perhaps tell me when you write 
that the bulk of the middle class, the reflecting portion of the 
people of England, do not sympathize with the London daily press 
on the subject of the Marriage question ; and I know that there is 
a considerable portion of the more intelligent French people who 
do not approve of all that is written in the Paris papers. But, 
unhappily, the bulk of mankind do not think for themselves. The 
newspapers write in the name of the two countries, and to a great 
extent they form public opinion. Governments and diplomatists 
act upon the views expressed in the influential journals. 



£Jt.43.] correspondence. 317 

" . . . . There is one way in which this system of interfering in 
the politics of Spain is especially mischievous. It prevents Span- 
ish parties from being formed upon a purely domestic basis, and 
thus puts off the day when the politicians shall devote them- 
selves to their own reforms. At present, all the intrigues of 
Madrid revolve round the diplomatic manoeuvres of France and 
England. There is another evil arising out of it. It gives the 
bulk of the Spaniards a false notion of their own position. They 
are a proud people, they think all Europe is busy with their 
affairs, they hear of France and England being on the point of 
going to war about the marriage of one of their princesses, they 
imagine that Spain is the most important country in the world, 
and thus they forget their own ignorance, poverty, and political 
degradation, and of course do not occupy themselves in domestic 
reforms. If left to themselves, they would soon find out their 
inferiority, for they are not without a certain kind of common 
sense. 

"I have always had an instinctive monomania against this 
system of foreign interference, protocolling, diplomatizing, etc.,' 
and I should be glad if you and our other Free Trade friends, 
who have beaten the daily broad-sheets into common sense upon 
another question, would oppose yourselves to the Palmerston sys- 
tem, and try to prevent the Foreign Office from undoing the good 
which the Board of Trade has done to the people. But you must 
not disguise from yourself that the evil has its roots in the pug- 
nacious, energetic, self-sufficient, foreigner despising and pitying 
character of that noble insular creature, John Bull. Eead Wash- 
ington Irving's description of him fumbling for his cudgel always 
the moment he hears of any row taking place anywhere on the 
face of the earth, and bristling up with anger at the very idea of 
any other people daring to have a quarrel without first asking his 
consent or inviting him to take a part in it. 

" . . . . And the worst fact is, that however often we increase 
our establishments, we never reduce them. Thus in 1834 and 
1835, Mr. Urquhart and the daily press did their utmost to 
frighten the people of England into the notion that Eussia was 
going to swallow Turkey, and then would land some fine morning 
at Yarmouth to make a breakfast of England. Our armaments 
were accordingly increased. In 1840 the Whigs called for 5000 
additional soldiers to put down Chartism. In 1846 still further 
armaments were voted to meet the Oregon dispute. These pre- 
tences have all vanished, but the ships and soldiers remain, and 
taxes are paid to support them. Keep your eye upon our good 
friend Ward, or depend on it he will be wanting more ships on 
the plea of our unsettled relations with Spain and France. Prob- 
ably that is the reason why you read of Admiral Parker being 



318 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

sent to this coast, and his fleet placed at the orders of Mr. Bulwer, 
of steamers passing between Gibraltar and the Fleet, etc. All 
this may be intended to prepare John Bull for a haul upon his 
purse for more ships next session ; at least it may be an argument 
to pass the navy estimates with acclamation. As for any other 
rational object being gained, it is not in my power here on the 
spot to comprehend it. The English merchants laugh at the pre- 
tence set up by our Admiral to the Spanish authorities on the 
coast to excuse his appearance in such force ' that he comes to 
protect British interests.' The British residents have no fear of 
any injuries. I have seen Englishmen who have lived here dur- 
ing about a score of revolutions, and witnessed a hundred changes 
of ministries, and who laugh at the idea of any danger. To sum 
up in a word, our meddling with this country is purely mis- 
chievous to all parties, and can do no good to Spaniards or Eng- 
lishmen. And I hope you will do your best to stem the spirit 
with which it is encouraged in the daily press. I was glad to see 
the good sense in your paper, the Manchester Examiner, upon the 
subject, and equally sorry to observe that our good friend, James 
Wilson, had been carried away by the current. I wrote to him 
from Madrid. I fear it is too much to expect any man to live in 
London in the atmosphere of the clubs and political cliques, and 
preserve the independent national tone in his paper, which we 
had hoped for in the Economist" 1 

Lord Palmerston's intervention in the affairs of Portugal was 
more active, and even more wantonly preposterous. All that 
Cobden said on this subject was literally true. The British fleet 
was kept in the Tagus for many months in order to protect the 
Queen of Portugal against her own subjects. What had England 
to gain ? Portugal was one of the smallest, poorest, most decayed 
and abject of European countries. As for her commerce, said 
Cobden, if that is what you seek, you are sure of that, for the 
simple reason that you take four fifths of all her port wine, and 
if you did not, no one else would drink it. Our statesmen, he 
went on, actually undertook to say who should govern Portugal, 
and they stipulated that the Cortes should be governed on con- 
stitutional principles. The Cortes was elected, and what hap- 
pened ? The people returned almost every man favorable to the 
very statesman who, as Lord Palmerston insisted, was to have no 
influence in Portugal. 2 

What Cobden heard from Bastiat made him all the more anx- 

1 To Mr. Bright. Oct. 24, 1846. 

2 SpcecJies, i. 466. Jan. 27, 1848. See for the other side of the matter, Mr. 
Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. 14-30. Lord Palmerston's reference (p. 16) 
to the anxiety and uneasiness of the Queen and the Prince Consort at Windsor 
shows, among many other proofs, how well founded were Cohden's notions of the 
particular forces that were at work hehind the policy of Intervention. 



jEt. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE. 319 

ious to bring England round to a more sedate policy. The chief 
obstacles to the propagandism of Free Trade in France, said Bas- 
tiat, come from your side of the Channel. He was confronted by 
the fact that at the very time when Peel consummated the policy 
of Free Trade, he asked for an extra credit for the army, as if to 
proclaim, said Bastiat, that he had no faith in his own work, and 
as if to thrust back our best arguments down our own throats. 
Thirteen years afterwards, when Cobden was himself engaged in 
converting France to Free Trade, while Lord Palmerston was at 
the same moment increasing the fleet, raising new fortifications, 
and making incendiary speeches, Bastiat's words of 1847 may 
have come back to his mind: "Besides the extra credit, the policy 
of your government is still mark'ed by a spirit of taquinerie, which 
irritates the French people, and makes it lose whatever impar- 
tiality it may have had left." 1 

" I must speak to you in all frankness," Bastiat proceeded, in 
his urgent way. " In adopting Free Trade England has not 
adopted the policy that flows logically from Free Trade. Will 
she do so ? I cannot doubt it, but when ? The position taken 
by you and your friends in Parliament will have an immense 
influence on the course of our undertaking. If you energetically 
disarm your diplomacy, if you succeed in reducing your naval 
forces, we shall be strong. If not, what kind of figure shall we 
cut before our public ? When we predict that Free Trade will 
draw English policy into the way of justice, peace, economy, 
colonial emancipation, France is not bound to take our word for 
it. There exists an inveterate mistrust of England, I will even 
say a sentiment of hostility, as old as the two names of French 
and English. Well, there are excuses for this sentiment. What 
is wrong is that it envelops all your parties and all your fellow- 
citizens in the same reprobation. But ought not nations to judge 
one another by external acts ? They often say that we ought not 
to confound nations with their governments. There is some truth 
and some falsehood in this maxim ; and I venture to say that it 
is false as regards nations that possess constitutional means of 
making opinion prevail. England ought to bring her political 
system into harmony with her new economic system." 2 

Cobden in reply seems to have treated this apprehension of 
English naval force, and the hostile use to which it might be put, 
as a device of the French Protectionists to draw attention from 
the true issue. No, answered Bastiat manfully ; " I know my 
country ; it sees that England is capable of crushing all the navies 
in the world ; it knows that it is led by an oligarchy which has 
no scruples. That is what disturbs its sight, and hinders it from 

1 Bastiat, i. 152. 2 Bastiat to Cobden. Oct. 15, 1847. 



320 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

understanding Free Trade. I say more, that even if it did under- 
stand Free Trade, it would not care for it on account of its purely 
economic advantages. What you have to show it above all else 
is that freedom of exchange will cause the disappearance of those 
military perils which France apprehends. England ought seri- 
ously to disarm ; spontaneously to drop her underground opposi- 
tion to the unlucky Algerian conquest ; and spontaneously to put 
an end to the dangers that grow out of the Plight of Search." * 
When the revolution of 1848 came, Bastiat was more pressing 
than ever. France could not be the first to disarm; and if she 
did disarm, she would be drawn into war. England, by her 
favored position, was alone able to set the example. If she could 
only understand all this and act upon it, " she would save the 
future of Europe." Bastiat, however, was not long in awakening 
to the fact that not Protection but Socialism was now the foe that 
menaced France. He turned round with admirable versatility, 
and brought to bear on the new monster the same keen and patient 
scrutiny, the same skilful dexterity in reasoning and illustration, 
which had done 'such good service against the more venerable 
heresy. The pamphlets which he wrote between 1848 and 1850 
contain by much the most penetrating and effective examination 
that the great Socialist writers in France have ever received. 

This memorable year was an unfavorable moment for Cobden's 
projects, but the happy circumstance that Great Britain alone 
passed through the political cyclone without anything more for- 
midable than Mr. Smith O'Brien's insurrection in Ireland, and 
the harmless explosion of Chartism on Kennington Common, was 
too remarkable for men not to seek to explain it. The explana- 
tion that commended itself to most observers was that Free Trade 
had both mitigated the pressure of those economic evils which 
had provoked violent risings in other countries, and that, besides 
this, it had removed from the minds of the English workmen the 
sense that the government was oppressive, unjust, or indifferent 
to their well-being. " My belief is," said Sir Eobert Peel in a 
powerful speech which he made the following year, vindicating 
nis commercial policy, " that you have gained the confidence and 
good will of a powerful class in this country by parting with that 
which was thought to be directly for the benefit of the landed 
interest. I think it was that confidence in the generosity and 
justice of Parliament, which in no small degree enabled you to 
pass triumphantly through the storm that convulsed other coun- 
tries during the year 1848." 2 

1 CEuv. i. 167-170. 

2 July 6, 1849. This comprehensive defence of Free Trade is well worth read- 
ing at the present day, when the same fallacies which Peel then exposed have come 
to life again. 



jEt. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE. 321 

The Protectionist party had not yet accepted defeat, nor did they 
finally accept it until they came into power in 1852. All through 
the year that intervened they turned nearly every debate into a 
Protectionist debate. After Lord George Bentinck's death in the 
autumn of 1848, they were led in the House of Commons by Mr. 
Disraeli, whose persistent and audacious patience was inspired by 
the seeming confidence that a Protectionist reaction was inevitable. 
The reaction never came. The Navigation Laws, and protection 
on West Indian Sugar, followed the Corn Law. Pree trade in 
corn was only the prelude to free trade in sugar and free trade in 
ships. But the interests died hard. 1 Even the landlords made 
tenacious efforts to get back, in the shape of specious readjust- 
ments of rates and taxes, something of what they believed that 
they were going to lose on their rents. Cobden remained in the 
forefront of this long controversy, though he was no longer one of 
the leaders of a forlorn hope. 

The Irish famine and the Irish insurrection forced the minds 
of politicians of every color to the tormenting problem to which 
Cobden had paid such profound attention on his first entry into 
public life. National Education, another of the sincerest inter- 
ests of his earlier days, once more engaged him, and he found 
himself, as he had already done by his vote on the Maynooth 
grant, in antagonism to a large section of nonconformist politi- 
cians for whom in every other matter he had the warmest admira- 
tion. The following extracts from his correspondence show how 
he viewed these and other less important topics, as they came 
before him. 

"London, Feb. 22, 1848. {To Mrs. Cobden)— There seems to 
be a terrible storm brewing against the Whig budget. Unfortu- 
nately the outcry is rather against the mode of raising the money 
than the mode of expending it, and I do not sympathize with 
those who advocate armaments and then grumble at the cost. 
For my part I would make the influential classes pay the money, 
and then they will be more careful in the expenditure. I get a 
good many letters of support from all parts of the country, and 
some poetry, as you will see." 

" Feb. 24. — Nothing is .being talked about to-day but the 
emeutes in Paris. From the last accounts it seems that Louis 
Philippe has been obliged to give way and change his ministry, 
owing to the troops and the national guards having shown signs 
of fraternizing with the people. By and by governments will 
discover that it is no use to keep large standing armies, as they 
cannot depend on them at a pinch. You are right in saying that 
the income tax has brought people to their senses. It is disgust- 

1 The Sugar Duties Bill became law in 1848, but the Navigation Act was not 
passed until the summer of 1849. 

21 



322 LIFE Or COBDEN. [1848. 

ing to see the same men who clamored for armaments, now re- 
fusing to pay for them." 

" London, Feb. 29. {To George Combe.) — These are stirring events 
in France. I am most anxious about our neutrality in the squab- 
bles which will ensue on the Continent. I dread the revival of 
the Treaty of Vienna by our red-tapists, should France reach to 
the Ehine or come in collision with Austria or Eussia. Besides, 
there is a great horror at the present changes in the minds of our 
Court and aristocracy. There will be a natural repugnance on 
the part of our Government, composed as it is entirely of the 
aristocracy, to go on cordially with a Republic, aud it will be 
easy to find points of disagreement, when the will is ready for a 
quarrel. I know that the tone of the clubs and coteries of London 
is decidedly hostile, and there is an expectation in the same 
quarters that we shall have a war. It is striking to observe how 
little the views and feelings of the dominant class are in unison 
with those of the people at large. I agree with you that the 
republican form of government will put France to a too severe 
test. Yet it is difficult to see what other form will suit it. The 
people are too clever and active to submit to a despotism. All 
the props of a Monarchy, such as an aristocracy and State Church, 
are gone. After all a Republic is more in harmony than any 
other form with the manners of the people, for there is a strong 
passion for social equality in France. However, the duty of every 
man in England is to raise the cry for neutrality." 1 

" March 8. (To Mrs. Cobden.) — We are a little anxious up here 
lest there should be riots in the north. We hear bad accounts 
from Glasgow, but I suppose they are exaggerated. I hope we 
shall have no imitations of the French fashions in this respect." 

" March 10. ( „ ) — We were very late in the House again 
last night. Disraeli was very amusing for two hours, talking 
about everything but the question. 2 He made poor McGregor 
a most ridiculous figure. The Whigs are getting hold of our 
friends." 

" London, March 14. ( „ ) — On getting back yesterday I 
found such a mass of letters that, what with them and the com- 
mittee I had to attend, and callers, and my speech last evening, 

1 After the Revolution became Socialistic, Peel said the same : — "I believe it 
to be essential to the peace of the world and to the stability of government, that 
the experiment now making in France shall have a fair trial without being embar- 
rassed or obstructed by extrinsic intervention. Let us wait for the results of this 
experiment. Let us calmly contemplate whether it is possible that executive gov- 
ernments can be great manufacturers, whether it can be possible for them to force 
capital to employ industry," &c. — Sir Robert Peel, April 18. 

2 Among other points he laughed at Cobden and Mr. Bright as representatives 
of Peace and Plenty in the face of a starving people and a world in arms. He also 
declared himself a "Free-Trader, not a freebooter of the Manchester school." 



JBr. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE. 323 

I thought you would excuse my writing to you. I am more 
harassed than ever. The committees are very important (I mean 
upon army, navy, and ordnance expenditure, 1 and upon the Bank 
of England), and occupy my time more than the House. I gave 
them some home truths last evening, but we were in a poor 
minority. 2 The Ministers frightened our friends about a resigna- 
tion. Nobody did more to canvass for help for them than 

. He is far more to be blamed than Gibson, who is 

thoroughly with us in heart, and only votes with the Government 
because he is one of them. The electors ought to make allowance 
for him. He is a very good fellow, and it is a great pity that he 
ever joined the Whigs. There are many men on our side upon 
whom I relied, who went over to the Government, very much to 
my disgust. There are uncommonly few to be trusted in this 
atmosphere. Don't be alarmed. I am not going to set up any 
new League. It is a mistake of the newspapers." 

"March 18. ( „ ) — We have had incessant rain here for 
several days, and I have been thinking with some apprehension 
of its effects upon the grain in the ground, and upon the opera- 
tions of the farmers in getting in their seed. To-day, however, it 
is a fine clear day, and I am going with Porter 3 at four o'clock 
down to Wimbledon to stay till Monday. This week's work has 
nearly knocked me up. They talk of a ten hours bill in Paris. 
I wish we had a twelve hours bill, for I am at it from nine in the 
morning till midnight. We had a debate last evening upon the 
question of applying the income tax to Ireland, but I was shut 
out of the division, the door being closed in my face just as I was 
entering, otherwise I should have voted for the measure. 4 The 
news from Paris is more and more exciting. There seems to be 
a sort of reaction of the moderate party against the violent men. 
The Bank of France has suspended specie payments, which will 
lead to much mischief and confusion. I fear we have not seen 
the worst." 

"London, March 21. ( „ ) — I have sent you a Times con- 
taining a report of my speech last night. Be good enough to 
return it to me after you have read it, as I shall want to correct 
it for Hansard, and have not another copy. We were in a miser- 

1 As a means of conciliating public opinion, which was at this time in one of its 
cold and thrifty fits, Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, moved for 
a Select and Secret Committee to inquire into the expenditure on army, navy, and 
ordnance. Cobden was an assiduous attendant, with his usual anxiety to hear all 
the facts of the case. 

2 On Mr. Hume's motion for altering the period of renewed income-tax from 
three years to one. ' The "poor minority" was 138 against 363. 

3 The author of Porter's Progress of the Nation. 

4 Moved by Sir B. Hall, opposed by the Government, and rejected by 218 
to 138. 



324 LIFE OE COBDEN. [1848. 

able minority. 1 The blue jackets and red coats were clown upon 
me fiercely, as if I had been attacking them sword in hand. It 
reminded me of the old times when we were just beginning the 
Anti-Corn-Law battle in the House. We get astounding news 
from the Continent ; a fresh revolution or a dethronement by every 
post." 

" March 27. ( „ ) — You need not be alarmed about my 
turning up right in the end, but at the present time I am not 
very fashionable in aristocratic circles. However, I have caught 
Admiral Dundas in a trap. You may remember that he contra- 
dicted me about my fact of a large ship lying at anchor so long at 
Malta. Well, a person has 1 called upon me, and given me the 
minute particulars and dates of the times which all the admirals 
have been lying in Malta harbor during the last twelve years, 
extracted by him from the ship logs which are lying at Somerset 
House. Having got the particulars, I have given notice to 
Admiral Dundas that I shall move in the House for the official 
return of them to be extracted from the ships' logs. He says I 
sha'n't have the returns, but he can't deny that I have got them. 
I shall make a stir in the House, and turn the tables upon him. 
Whilst I was talking to the Admiral about it to-day in the com- 
mittee room, Molesworth entered into the altercation with so 
much warmth that I thought there would have been an affair 
between them. The best of it all is, that I find the present 
Admiral in the Mediterranean (Sir William Parker), who sent 
such an insolent message to me about my speech at Manchester, 
which was read by Dundas in the House, has been lying himself 
for seven months and two days in Malta harbor with nearly 1000 
hands, without ever stirring out of port." 

" London, April 10. ( „ ) — We have been all in excitement 
here with the Chartist meeting at Kennington Common, which 
after all has gone off very quietly, and does not appear to have 
been so numerously attended as was expected. In my opinion 
the Government and the newspapers have made far too much 
fuss about it. From all that I can learn there were not so many 
as 40,000 persons present, and they dispersed quietly. I do not 
think I shall be able to go north with you before next Monday 
week." 

" April 15.. ( „ ) — You will have seen by the paper what a 
mess Feargus O'Connor has made of the Chartist petition. The 
poor dupes who have followed him are quite disheartened and 
disgusted, and ought to be so. They are now much more disposed 
to go along with the middle class." 

" May 13. ( „ ) — You will hear that all the papers are down 

1 Debate on Navy estimates ; amendment for reduction of the force, defeated by 
347 to 328. 



.Et. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE. 325 

upon me again. In making a few remarks about the Alien Bill, 
I said that the ' best way to repel republicanism was to curtail 
some of the barbarous splendor of the Monarchy which went to 
the aggrandizement of the aristocracy.' My few words drew up 
Lord John as usual, and he was followed by Bright with a capital 
speech." 

" Manchester, April 24. {To G. Combe.) — You know how cor- 
dially I agree with you upon the subject of Education. But I 
confess I see no chance of incorporating it in any new movement 
for an extension of the suffrage. The main strength of any such 
movement must be in the Liberal ranks of the middle class, and 
they are almost exclusively filled by Dissenters. To attempt to 
raise the question of National Education amongst them at the 
present moment, would be to throw a bombshell into their ranks 
to disperse them. In my opinion every extension of popular 
rights will bring us nearer to a plan of National Education, be- 
cause it will give the poor a stronger motive to educate their 
children, and at the same time a greater power to carry the motive 
into practice. The real obstacle to a system of National Educa- 
tion has been in my opinion the State Church, and although the 
Dissenters are for the moment in a false position, they will, I 
hope, with time come right." 

"May 15. ( „ ) — There is no active feeling at present in 
favor of National Education. The Dissenters, at least Baines's 
section, who have been the only movement party since the League 
was dissolved, have rather turned popular opinion against it. 1 I 
need not say how completely I agree with you that education 
alone can insure good self-government. Don't suppose that I am 
changed, or that I intend to shirk the question. Above all, don't 
suspect that sitting for Yorkshire would shut my mouth. I made 
up my mind, on returning from the Continent, that the best 
chance I could give to our dissenting friends was to give them 
time to cool after the excitement of the late Opposition to the 
Government measure, and therefore I have avoided throwing the 
topic in their faces. But I do not intend to preserve my silence 
much longer. If I take a part in a new reform movement, I shall 
do my best to connect the Education question with it, not as a 
part of the new Eeform act, but by proclaiming my own convic- 
tions that it is by a national system of education alone that peo- 
ple can acquire or retain knowledge enough for self-government. 
In our reform movement, sectarianism will not be predominant." 

1 See above, p. 201. "I confess," said Cobden, in 1851, "that for fifteen 
years my hopes of success in establishing a system of National Education, have 
always been associated with the idea of coupling the education of the country with 
the religious communities which exist." But he found religious discordances too 
violent, and he took refuge, as we shall presently see, in the secular system. 



326 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

" London, July 23. ( „ ) — What a wretched session has this 
been ! It ought to be expunged from the minutes of Parliament. 
Three Coercion Bills for Ireland and the rest talk, talk, talk. 
There never was a Parliament in which so much power for good 
or evil was in the hands of the Minister as in this. Lord John 
could have commanded a majority for any judicious Liberal meas- 
ures by the aid of Peel, who was bound to support him, and the 
Liberals, who were eager to be led forward. But he has allowed 
himself to be baffled, bullied, and obstructed by Lord George Ben- 
tinck and the Protectionists, who have been so far encouraged by 
their success in Sugar and the Navigation Laws that I expect they 
will be quite ready to begin their reaction on Corn next session, 
and we may have to fight the Free Trade battle over again. The 
feebleness and incapacity of the "Whigs are hardly sufficient to 
account for their failures as administrators. The fact is they are 
the allies of the aristocracy rather than of the people, and they 
fight their opponents with gloves, not meaning to hurt them. 
They are buffers placed between the people and the privileged 
classes, to deaden the shock when they are brought into col- 
lision." 

"May 15. (To Mr. W. B. Greg) — No apology is, I assure you, 
necessary for your frank and friendly letter. There is not much 
difference in our views as to what is most wanted for the country. 
The only great point upon which we do not agree is as to the 
means. What we want before all things is a bold retrenchment 
of expenditure. I may take a too one-sided view of the matter, 
but I consider nine tenths of all our future dangers to be financial, 
and when I came home from the Continent, it was with a deter- 
mination to go on with fiscal reform and economy as a sequence 
to Free Trade. I urged this line upon our friend James Wilson 
(who, by the way, has committed political suicide), and others, 
and I did not hesitate to say up to within the last three months 
that I would take no active part in agitating for organic questions. 
But when the series of political revolutions broke out on the Con- 
tinent, all men's minds in England were suddenly turned to simi- 
lar topics ; and the political atmosphere became so charged with 
the electric current, that it was no longer possible to avoid dis- 
cussing organic questions. But I had no share in forcing forward 
the subject. I abstained from assisting in forming a party in the 
House for organic reforms, though I was much urged by a great 
number of members to head such a party." 

" July 21. (To H. Ashworth) — No man can defend or palliate 
such conduct as that of Smith O'Brien and his confederates. It 
would be a mercy to shut them up in a lunatic asylum. They are 
not seeking a repeal of the legislative union, but the establishment 
of a Eepublic, or probably the restoration of the Kings of Munster 



iET. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE. 327 

and Connaught ! But the sad side of the picture is in the fact 
that we- are doing nothing to satisfy the moderate party in Ire- 
land, nothing which strengthens the hands even of John O'Con- 
nell and the priest party, who are opposed to the ' red republicans ' 
of the Dublin clubs. There seems to be a strong impression here 
that this time there is to be a rebellion in Ireland. But I confess 
I have ceased to fear or hope anything from that country. Its 
utter helplessness to .do anything for itself is our great difficulty. 
You can't find three Irishmen who will co-operate together for 
any rational object." 

"London, August 28. (To George Combe.) — I would have an- 
swered your first letter from Ireland, but did not know how soon 
you were going back again to Edinburgh. With respect to the 
plan for holding sectional meetings of the House of Commons in 
Dublin, Edinburgh, and London for local purposes, it is too fanci- 
ful for my practical taste. I do not think that such a scheme will 
ever seriously engage the public attention. If local business be 
ever got rid of by the House of Commons, it should be transferred 
as much as possible to County courts. There is very little advan- 
tage for instance in carrying a road bill from Eoss-shire to Edin- 
burgh instead of to London, or from Galway to Dublin instead of 
to London. The private or local business occupies much less of 
the time of the House of Commons than many people suppose. 
An hour on an average at the opening of the sittings daily suf- 
fices : the rest is all done in select committees, and a great deal of 
it by Mr. Green and Mr. Bernal, Chairmen of Committees, who, 
I suspect, would find it no advantage in Irish matters to be in 
Dublin. Bad as the system is of bringing to the House of Com- 
mons all the local business of the kingdom, I am sure it would 
not mend the matter to split us into three sections, as your friends 
propose, for two or three months, and then to reunite in London 
for imperial purposes. We should be in perpetual session. 

" Whilst we are constitution-tinkering, let me give you my plan. 
Each county to have its assembly elected by the people, to do the 
work which the unpaid magistrates and lords-lieutenant now do, 
and also much of the local business which now conies before 
Parliament. The head of this body, or rather the head of each 
county, to be the executive chief, partaking of the character of 
prefect, or governor of a state in the United States. By and by, 
when you require to change the constitution of the House of 
Lords, these county legislators may each elect two senators to an 
upper chamber or senate. 

" But the question is about Ireland. Why do your friends 
amuse one another with such bubble-blowing ? The real diffi- 
culty in Ireland is the character and condition socially and morally 
of the people, from the peer to the Connaught peasant. It is not 



328 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

by forms of legislation or the locality of parliaments, but by a 
change and improvement of the population, that Ireland is to 
have a start in the career of civilization and self-government. 
Now instead of phantom-hunting, why don't your friends (if they 
are worthy of being your friends) tell the truth to their country- 
men, and teach them their duties as well as their rights ? And 
let them begin by showing that they understand their own duties 
and act up to them. The most discouraging thing to an English 
Member of Parliament who wishes to do well to Ireland, is the 
quality of the men sent to represent it in the House of Commons. 
Hardly a man of business amongst them ; and not three who are 
prepared cordially to co-operate together for any one common 
object. How would it mend matters if such men were sitting in 
Dublin instead of London 1 But the subject is boundless and 
hopeless, and I must not attempt to discuss it in a note." 

" Hayling Island, Hants, Oct. 4. ( „ ) — Many thanks for 
your valuable letters upon Ireland and Germany. I really feel 
much indebted for your taking all these pains for my instruc- 
tion. 

"Leaving Germany — upon which I do not presume to offer 
an opinion beside yours — I do claim for myself the justice of 
having foreseen the danger in Ireland, or rather seen it — for its 
condition has little altered since I first began to reason. When 
about fourteen years ago I first found leisure from my private 
affairs to think about public business, I summed up my views of 
English politics in a pamphlet which contained many crude de- 
tails (which I should not now print), but upon whose three broad 
propositions I have never changed my opinion. They were — 
First, that the great curse of our policy has been our love of inter- 
vention in foreign politics ; secondly, that our greatest home diffi- 
culty is Ireland ; and thirdly, that the United States is the great 
economical rival which will rule the destiny of England. 

" It may appear strange that a man who had thought much about 
Ireland, and who had frequently been in that country (I had a 
cousin, a rector of the Church of England in Tipperary), should 
have been seven years in Parliament and not have spoken upon 
Irish questions. I will tell you the reason. I found the popu- 
lace of Ireland represented in the House by a body of men, with 
O'Connell at their head, with whom I could feel no more sympa- 
thy or identity than with people whose language I did not under- 
stand. In fact, morally I felt a complete antagonism and 
repulsion towards them.- O'Connell always treated me with 
friendly attention, but I never shook hands with him or faced his 
smile without a feeling of insecurity ; and as for trusting him on 
any public question where his vanity or passions might interpose, 
I should have as soon thought of an alliance with an Ashantee 



Mr. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE. 329 

chief. 1 I found that that which I regarded as the great Irish 
grievance — the Protestant Church Establishment — was never 
mentioned by the Irish Liberal members. Their Eepeal cry was 
evidently an empty sound. 

"The great obstacle to all progress both in Ireland and in 
England is the landlord spirit, which is dominant in political and 
social life. It is this spirit which prevents our dealing with the 
question of the tenure of land. The feudal system, as now main- 
tained in Ireland, is totally unsuited to the state of the country. 
In fact, the feudal policy is not carried out, for that would imply 
a responsibility on the part of the proprietor to keep and employ 
the people, whereas he is possibly living in Paris, whilst his agent 
is driving the peasantry from his estate and perhaps burning 
their cabins. What is wanting is a tribunal or legislature be- 
fore which the case of Ireland may be pleaded, where the landlord 
spirit (excuse the repetition of the word) is not supreme. This 
is not to be found in our House of Commons. You would be 
astonished if behind the scenes in the Committees, and in the con- 
fidence of those men who frame bills for Parliament, to observe 
how vigilant the spirit of landlordism is in guarding its privi- 
leges, and how much the legislator who would hope to carry a 
measure through both Houses, is obliged to consult its sovereign 
will and pleasure. Hence the difficulty of dealing with game 
laws, copyholds, and such small matters, which grow into things 
of mighty import in the House of Commons, whilst the law of 
primogeniture is a sort of eleventh commandment in the eyes 
of our legislators. 

" I think I know what is wanted in Ireland : a redistribution 
of land, as the only means of multiplying men of property. If I 
had absolute power I would instantly issue an edict applying the 
law of succession as it exists in France to the land of Ireland. 
There should be no more absentee proprietors drawing large 
rentals from Ireland, if I could prevent it. I would so divide the 
property as to render it necessary to live upon the spot to look 
after it. But you can do nothing effectual in that direction with 
our Houses, and therefore I am an advocate for letting in the 
householders as voters, so as to take away the domination of the 
squires. But I will do all in my power in the mean time to give 
a chance to Ireland, and I cordially agree with your views upon 
the policy that ought to be pursued towards it." 

" London, Oct. '28. ( „ ) — I have to thank you for the Scots- 
man containing the whole of your observations upon the state of 
Ireland, in every syllable of which I agree with you. But excuse 
me if I say I miss in your articles, as in all other dissertations 

1 Cobden is here unjust to O'Connell. He opposed the Corn Bill of 1815, and 
was true to the League in the fight from 1838 to 1846. 



330 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

upon Ireland, a specifics/a^ — I mean such a remedial scheme as 
might be embodied in an Act of Parliament. And it must be so 
from the very nature of the case, for the ills of Ireland are so com- 
plex, and its diseases so decidedly chronic, that no single remedy 
could possibly cure them. Indeed, if we were to apply a thousand 
remedies, the existing generation could hardly hope to live to see 
any great change in the condition of the Irish people ; and this is 
probably one reason why politicians and ministers of the day do 
not commit their fortunes to the cause of justice to Ireland. 

" I have but one plan, but I don't know how to enforce it, Cut 
up the land into small properties. Let there be no estates so 
large as to favor absenteeism, even from the parish. How is this 
to be done, with feudalism still in the ascendant in Parliament 
and in the Cabinet ? Pirn is quite right when he draws the dis- 
tinction between the case of Ireland, where the conquerors have 
not amalgamated with the conquered, and that of other countries, 
where the victors and vanquished have been invariably blended. 
For we are all conquered nations — some of us have been so 
repeatedly — but all, with the exception of Ireland, have absorbed 
their conquerors. 

" Almost every crime and outrage in Ireland is connected with 
the occupation or ownership of land ; and yet the Irish are not 
naturally an agricultural people, for they alone, of all the European 
emigrants who arrive in the United States, linger about the towns, 
and hesitate to avail themselves of the tempting advantages of 
the rural districts in the interior. But in Ireland, at least the 
south and west, there is no property but the soil, and no labor but 
upon the land, and you cannot reach the population in their 
material or moral condition but through the proprietorship of the 
land. Therefore, if I had the power, I would always make the 
proprietors of the soil resident, by breaking up the large proper- 
ties. In other words, I would give Ireland to the Irish. 

" I used to think that the Protestant Church was the crying 
evil in Ireland ; and so it would be, if the Catholics of that coun- 
try were Englishmen or Scots. But as an economical evil, it can 
hardly be said to affect the material condition of the people, see- 
ing that the titheowners live in the parish, and are in many cases 
almost the only proprietors who do spend their income creditably 
at home ; and as it is not felt apparently as a moral grievance, I 
do not think that the agitation against the Church Establishment 
would be likely to contribute to the contentment' of the people. 
I confess that the apathy of the Irish Catholics upon the subject 
of the Protestant Church Establishment in that country excites 
my surprise, if not my contempt." 

"Dec. 28. {To Mr. Edward Baines) — I doubt the utility of 
your recurring to the Education question. My views have un- 



JSr.44.] correspondence. 331 

dergone no change for twenty years on the subject, excepting that 
they are infinitely strengthened, and I am convinced that I am 
as little likely to convert you as you me. Practically no good 
could come out of the controversy ; for we must both admit that 
the principle of State Education is virtually settled, both here and 
in all civilized countries. It is not an infallible test I admit, but 
I don't think there are two men in the House of Commons who 
are opposed to the principle of National Education. 

" I did not intend to touch upon a matter so delicate ; but yet, 
upon second thoughts, it is best to be candid. My experience in 
public matters has long ago convinced me that to form a party, 
or act with a party, it is absolutely necessary to avoid seeking for 
points of collision, and, on the contrary, to endeavor to be silent, 
as far as one. can be so conscientiously, upon the differences one 
may see between his own opinions and those of his political allies. 
Applying this to your observations 1 upon my budget, I would 
have laid on heavily in favor of such parts as I could agree with, 
and would have deferred pointing out any errors until I had given 
the common enemy time to do that (I say errors, but I do not 
admit them in this case). The same remark applies to the course 
the Mercury took upon the redistribution of electoral power, on 
which occasion it was to my mind demonstratively wrong in 
abandoning and turning against the strongest position of the Re- 
formers. I do not press the Education question, because I presume 
your religious feelings were excited by the course the Government 
took whilst I was on the Continent. But I suppose all parties 
agree that education is the main cause of the split amongst the 
middle-class Liberals. Now, what I say to you I have always 
preached to others. For instance, I have been trying to persuade 
everybody about the Daily News, as to the impolicy, to say noth- 
ing of the injustice, of their gross attacks upon yourself and 
-friends, and I have used precisely the same argument which I 
now use to you." 

" Manchester, Nov. 30. {To Mrs. Cohden.) — I find our League 
friends here very lukewarm about the West Riding election. 2 
Many of them declare they will not vote. They seem quite out 
of humor with the religious intolerance of the Eardley party. I 
am very much inclined to think the Tories will win. Have you 
seen the news from Paris ? Lamoriciere, the French Minister of 
War, has proposed to the Assembly to reduce the army nearly one 
half, and to save 170 millions of francs. This, if really carried 
out, will make our work safe in this country." 

1 In the Leeds Mercury. 

2 Lord Morpeth, Cobden's colleague in the representation, now succeeded to the 
earldom of Carlisle. A contest took place, and Mr. Denison, the Conservative, 
defeated Sir Culling Eardley. 



332 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

" Manchester, Dec. 8. ( „ ) — I went down to Liverpool on 
"Wednesday afternoon, and dined at Mellor's with a large party of 
the leading men, including Brown and Lawrence Heyworth, and 
slept there. Yesterday I met the Financial Reformers at their 
Council Board, Mr. Robertson Gladstone in the chair. They 
seem to be earnest men, but I did not exactly see the man capable 
of directing so great an undertaking. They approved of my plan 
of a budget, and I agreed to address a letter with it to their chair- 
man for publication. Last evening I met another party of the 
more earnest men of the Reform Association, at Mellor's." 

The last extract refers to the subject which Cobden had now 
taken earnestly in hand. As he was always repeating, extrav- 
agant and ill-adjusted finance seemed to him the great mischief 
of our policy. Apart from its place in his general scheme, re- 
trenchment was Cobden's device for meeting the cry of the Pro- 
tectionists. It was an episode in the long battle against the 
enemies of Free Trade. The landed interest, they cried out, was 
ruined by rates and taxes. The implication was that they could 
not exist without Protection. That was Mr. Disraeli's cue until 
he became Chancellor of the Exchequer. He made speech after 
speech and motion after motion to this effect. Cobden with equal 
persistency retorted that the proper relief for agriculture was not 
the imposition of a burden upon the consumers of bread, but a 
reduction of the common burdens of them all. He had begun 
his campaign in the session of 1848. The Government came for- 
ward with a proposal, which was afterwards ignominiously with- 
drawn, for an increase in the income tax. Cobden broke new 
ground by insisting on the superior expediency of direct over in- 
direct taxation, provided that a just distinction were recognized, 
between permanent and precarious incomes. His chief point was 
that the Government must either increase direct taxation, or else 
reduce expenditure ; and he pressed the inference that expenditure 
must be decreased, and it must be decreased by reduction in 
armaments. 

Cobden's contention cannot be said to have prospered ; but the 
debates show how seriously his attack on expenditure was taken 
by those who opposed him. Mr. Disraeli laughed at him as the 
successor of the Abbe" St. Pierre, Rousseau, and Robespierre in the 
dreams of perpetual peace, but he recognized the possibility of 
public opinion being brought round to Cobden's side. Even Peel 
thought it necessary formally to express his dissent from Cobden's 
views on national defence. Fresh from his victorious onslaught 
upon the Corn Law, he was dreaded by the House of Commons 
and the old political factions, as speaking the voice of an irresist- 
ible, if not an infallible, oracle. The Government had no root. 
The Opposition was nullified by the internecine quarrel between 



Mt. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE. 333 

the Protectionists and the Peelites. The two parties in fact were 
so distracted, so uncertain in principle, and so unstable in compo- 
sition, that they were profoundly afraid of the one party which 
knew its own mind and stood aloof from the conventional game. 
The Conservatives constantly felt, or pretended to feel, an irrational 
apprehension that the object of the Manchester school was, in the 
exaggerated language of one of them, to organize a force that 
should override the legislature and dictate to the House of Com- 
mons. The Financial Pteform Association at Liverpool, with 
which Cobclen had entered into relations, was expected to imitate 
the redoubtable achievements of the League. Similar associations 
sprang up both in the English and the Scotch capitals, and there 
was on many sides a stir and movement on the subject which for 
a time promised substantial results. 

In a letter to Mr. Bright, Cobden sketched an outline of what 
was called a People's Budget, already referred to in his letter to 
Mr. Baines : — 

" London, Nov. 16, 1848. — I have been thinking and talking 
about concocting a 'national budget,' to serve for an object for 
financial reformers to work up to, and to prevent their losing their 
time upon vague generalities. The plan must be one to unite all 
classes and interests, and to bring into one agitation the counties 
and the towns. I propose to reduce the army, navy, and ordnance 
from 18,500,000/. to 10,000,000/., and thus save 8,500,000/. Upon 
the civil expenditure in all its branches, including the cost of col- 
lecting revenue, and the management of crown lands, I propose to 
save 1,500,000/. I propose to lay a probate and legacy duty upon 
real property, to affect both entailed and unentailed estates, by 
which would be got 1,500,000/. Here is 11,500,000/., to be used 
in reducing and abolishing duties, which I propose to dispose of 
as follows : — 
" Customs : 

" Tea, reduce duty to Is. per lb. 

" Wood and timber, abolish duties. 

" Butter and cheese, do. 

" Upwards of 100 smaller articles of the tariff to be abolished. 
( I would only leave about fifteen articles in the tariff paying 
customs duties.) 
" Excise : 

" Malt, all duty abolished. 

" Paper, do. do. 

" Soap, do. do. 

" Hops, do. do. 

" Window tax, all off. 

" Advertisement duty, do. 
"All these changes could be effected with 11,500,000/. 



334 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

" There are other duties which I should prefer to remove, instead 
of one or two of them, but I have been guided materially by a de- 
sire to bring all interests to sympathize with the scheme. Thus 
the tea is to catch the merchants and all the old women in the 
country — the wood and timber, the shipbuilders — the malt and 
hops, the farmers — paper and soap, the Scotch anti-excise peo- 
ple — the window-tax, the shopocracy of London, Bath, etc. — the 
advertisements, the press." 

The scheme which Cobden here propounds to Mr. Bright was 
elaborated in a speech made at Liverpool and afterwards set forth 
in a letter to the Financial Reform Association of that town, 
which led to much discussion, but which for reasons that we shall 
see in the next chapter did not become the starting-point of such 
an agitation as Cobden promised himself. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL 
MOVEMENTS. 

Behind the merits of a policy of economy for its own sake, there 
was in the minds both of Cobden and of Mr. Bright and others, a 
general scheme for gathering up the strength of the Liberal party. 
The extraordinary state of the old combinations in the House of 
Commons was a standing incentive to such efforts as were now 
made in the north of England. There was to be a popular party, 
based on real principles and. a practical programme, as distin- 
guished from factitious catchwords and insincere cries invented 
for parliamentary occasions. A great association might perhaps 
be formed, and it was suggested that it should be called the Com- 
mons League. Financial Reform and Parliamentary Reform were 
the two planks of the platform. At a great meeting in Man- 
chester in the second week of the new year, Cobden explained 
his ideas on the first, and Mr. Bright followed with a demand for 
the second. Cobden believed that the parts about financial reform 
were better received than the parts about parliamentary reform, 
even by the men in fustian jackets. 1 Meetings were held in other 
towns in the north ; and the two champions were everywhere re- 
ceived with unbounded cordiality. Circulars were sent out from 
Manchester for the formation of the new association, and between 

1 Letter to Mrs. Cobden, Jan. 10, 1849. 



jEt.44.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 335 

three and four thousand adhesions were received. But the new 
League did not grow. The leaders hardly seemed to know what 
it was that they wished to do. They were not sure in their tac- 
tics. Cobden thought that it ought to be a metropolitan associa- 
tion. Mr. Bright on the contrary believed that Lancashire and 
Yorkshire must be its centre. The scheme of the association was 
ambiguous. " We are asking people," said Mr. Bright, " to join 
for an undefined or ill-defined object, and we neither propose an 
end to the movement, nor a clear and open way for working it." 
The two chiefs were not exactly of one mind as to the true policy 
in the most important part of the programme. Cobden, as we 
have so often said, was essentially an economical, a moral, and a 
social reformer. He was never an enthusiast for mere reform in 
the machinery. Immediately after the repeal of the Corn Law, 
he confessed that on the question of the suffrage he had gone 
back. " And yet," he went on, " I am something like Peel and 
Free Trade. I do not oppose the principle of giving men a con- 
trol over their own affairs. I must confess, however, that I am 
less sanguine than I used to be about the effects of a wide exten- 
sion of the franchise." 1 His own favorite plan of extension 
through the forty- shilling freeholder only recommended itself to 
him because it brought with it the virtue of thrift, and the 
recommendation of property. Mr. Bright, though cordially acqui- 
escing in the plan so far as it went, and as a means of bringing 
the old factions to a capitulation in some of the counties, always 
maintained that it would never enfranchise so many voters per- 
manently as to make any real and effective change in the repre- 
sentation. Both before and after the League was dissolved, Mr. 
Bright insisted that " no object was worth a real and great effort, 
short of a thorough reform in Parliament." Although, however, 
there was not a sufficiently clear and concentrated unanimity to 
give an impulse to a new League, there was abundant room for 
strenuous co-operation in the work about which they were cor- 
dially agreed. 

The following letter written to Mr. Bright at the close of 1848, 
two or three weeks before the meeting at Manchester, shows the 
point of view to which Cobden inclined, and to what extent — 
and it was not great — he differed from Mr. Bright : — 

"Dec. 23, 1848. — Since writing to you, I have again read and 
reflected upon your letter. You say that the object of our meet- 
ing must be specific and general ; that I must speak upon Finance, 
and you follow upon Parliamentary Eeform ; and that then a so- 
ciety must be organized for a general registration to carry out, I 
presume, both objects. I thought we had always agreed that to 

1 To Mr. Sturge, July 16, 1846. 



336 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1848. 

carry the public along with us, we should have a single and well- 
defined object. It is decidedly my opinion. If Parliamentary 
Eeform were the sole object, we might after a long time probably 
succeed ; but the two things together would be a false start, and 
it must end in our taking to one or the other exclusively. It is 
true that we joined them together in our meeting of Members of 
Parliament at the Free Trade Club, and that was because we did 
not feel ourselves on the strongest ground with the middle class 
even then, without the Expenditure question, and it is vastly more 
so now. Besides, you will admit that we could not ignore the ex- 
istence of the Liverpool movement. However defective in men 
and money at present, they are in as good a position as we were 
a year after the League was formed ; and they have far more hold 
upon the public mind than we had even after three years' agita- 
tion. I rather think that you do not fully appreciate the extent 
to which the country is sympathizing with the Liverpool move- 
ment. But taking the fact to be as I have stated it, that the 
movement is for Financial Eeform, and nobody can deny it, I am 
half disposed to think that it is the most useful agitation we could 
enter upon. The people want information and instruction upon 
armaments, colonies, taxation, and so forth. There is a fearful 
mass of prejudice and ignorance to dispel upon these subjects, 
and whilst these exist, you may get a reform of Parliament, but 
you will not get a reformed policy. 

" I believe there is as much clinging to colonies at the present 
moment amongst the middle class as among the aristocracy ; and 
the working people are not wiser than the rest. And as respects 
armaments, I do not forget that last December [1847] hardly a 
Liberal paper in the kingdom supported me in resisting the 
attempt to add to our forces. Such papers as the Sun, Weekly 
Despatch, Sunday Times, and Liverpool Mercury, went dead against 
me ; and all that I could say for the rest is that they were silent. 
Now all these questions can be discussed most favorably in refer- 
ence to the expenditure. You may reason ever so logically, but 
never so convincingly as through the pocket. But it will take 
time even to play off John Bull's acquisitiveness against his com- 
bativeness. He will not be easily persuaded that all his reliance 
upon brute force and courage has been a losing speculation. 
Already I have heard from good Liberals an expression of fear 
that, in my Budget, I have 'gone too far.' But I have said 
enough. 

" And now, having stated my view of what the object must be, 
a word or two as to the modus operandi. And here we do not 
differ. I am for going at once to the registers and the forty- 
shilling qualifications. Begin where the League left off, and avow 
it boldly. Nay, make it a condition, if you like, of your alliance 



Mi. 44.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 337 

with Liverpool that such shall he the plan. And I put it to you 
and Wilson, whether you think that the men who go with us for 
the Budget and direct taxation, will not be likely to use their 
votes for a reform of Parliament. I should feel very little doubt 
about getting nearly as much strength for the one question as the 
other, by merely getting people to register and qualify for retrench- 
ment and direct taxation. Besides, I have no objection to our 
advocating Eeform, whilst advocating economy. I should myself 
do so. I would say — We may cut down the expenditure, as we 
did in 1835 ; but it will grow up again, as it has since, unless 
either the agitation were perpetual, or the Parliament were re- 
formed. I have no objection to this line of argument. I object 
only to our separating ourselves from Liverpool in our organi- 
zation. 

" And now I think I know the feeling of the majority of the 
influential money-givers in Manchester, and I feel convinced that 
they would all give their 10/. more heartily for my plan than any 
other. It would at once put Wilson, you, and me in a pure and 
disinterested light before their eyes. We should not be open to 
even the shade of a suspicion of wishing to arrogate to ourselves 
any separate line, or to use them as our party, or to make Man- 
chester needlessly the focus of a central agitation. You would 
have far more strength upon the platform for my object than any 
other. I have only room to add — advertise a meeting to co- 
operate with Liverpool in Financial Eeform, and make any use 

you like of my name I have a good opinion of Paulton's 

judgment. Not a word has passed between us on this subject ; 
but I wish you would let him read my letters, and ask him to 
give a candid opinion on the matter in discussion." 

Before the session began, he took part along with Mr. Bright in 
a ceremony of joyful commemoration. Peel's measure of 1846 
provided that the duty on corn should expire at the end of three 
years (see above, p. 238). The day arrived on the first of Feb- 
ruary, 1849. On the evening of the thirty -first of January a gath- 
ering was held in the great hall at Manchester. Speeches were 
made and choruses were sung until midnight. When twelve 
o'clock sounded, the assembly broke out in loud and long-sus- 
tained cheers to welcome the dawn of the day which had at last 
brought Free Trade in corn. Free Trade in its turn had brought 
new causes for which to fight. Cobden never swerved from his 
maxim that he could only do one thing at a time ; but his activity 
during the session of 1849 included in the same effort not only 
reduced armaments, reduced expenditure, and re-adjusted taxa- 
tion, but the more delicate subject of international arbitration. 

"London, Jan. 5, 1849. {To G. Combe.) — I hope you will not 
think there is any inconsistency in the strong declaration I made 

22 



338 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1849. 

at the meeting, of the paramount importance of the question of 
Education, and my apparent present inactivity in the matter. 
Owing to the split in the Liberal party, caused by Baines, it would 
be impossible for me to make it the leading political subject at 
this moment. Time is absolutely necessary to ripen it, but in the 
interim there are other topics which will take the lead in spite of 
any efforts to prevent it, reduction of expenditure being the fore- 
most ; and all I can promise myself is that any influence I may 
derive now from my connection with the latter or any other move- 
ment, shall at the fitting opportunity be all brought to bear in 
favor of National Education. To confess the truth, I can only do 
one thing at a time. Here am I now put in a prominent position 
upon the most complex of all public questions, the national finan- 
ces, and next session I shall be perhaps more the object of attack, 
and my budget more the subject of criticism, than the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer and his financial measures. Eor all this I am 
obliged to prepare myself by studying the dry details of official 
papers, and reading Hansard from 1815 to the present day, whilst 
at the same time I am in a daily treadmill of letter-writing, for 
every man having a crotchet upon finance, or a grievance however 
trifling, is inundating me with his correspondence. I can't help 
it, though I believe I am shortening my days by following strictly 
the rule ' whatever thou doest, do with all thy heart.' You know 
that of old I have felt a strong sentiment upon the subject of war- 
like armaments and war. It is this moral sentiment, more than 
the £ s. cl. view of the matter, which impels me to undertake the 
advocacy of a reduction of our forces. It was a kindred senti- 
ment ( more than the material view of the question ) which actu- 
ated me on the Corn Law and Free Trade question. It would 
enable me to die happy if I could feel the satisfaction of having 
in some degree contributed to the partial disarmament of the 
world." 

"Feb. 8. ( „ ) — I hasten to reply to your kind inquiries 
about my budget. In a day or two I intend to give notice of a 
motion declaratory of the expediency of reducing the expenditure 
to the amount of 1835. The terms of my resolution will be to 
reduce the expenditure ' with all 'practicable speed.' 1 1 I am too 
practical a man of business to think that it can be done in one 
session. But I will raise the question of our financial system 
with a view to save ten millions, and that will arrest public in- 

1 The motion was brought forward on February 26, and was to the effect that 
the net expenditure had risen by ten millions between 1835 and 1848 ; that the 
increase had been caused principally by defensive armaments ; that it was not war- 
ranted, while the taxes required to meet it lessened the funds applicable to product- 
ive industry ; and that therefore it was expedient to reduce the annual expenditure 
with all practicable speed to the amount of 1835. The division went against Cob- 
den's motion by a majority of 197, only 78 going into the lobby with the mover. 



£Jt.45.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 339 

terest in a way which no nibbling at details would do. In less 
than five years all that I propose, and a great deal more, will be 
accomplished. 

" I say I am too practical to think that the reduction of ten 
millions can be made in a session, because the changes in our dis- 
tant colonies will take time. But these changes ought to be set 
about at once. For instance, we have an army as large in Canada 
and the other North- American Colonies as that of the United 
States. Yet under the regime of Free Trade, Canada is not a whit 
more ours than is the great Republic. To keep that force in the 
North- American Colonies at the expense of the tax-payers of this 
country, is precisely the same drain upon our resources as if the 
Government of the United States could levy a contribution upon 
us for the pay and subsistence of its army. The same may be 
said of our army in Australia, New Zealand, etc. ; and if we do 
not draw in our horns, this country, with all its wealth, energy, 
and resources, will sink under the weight of its extended empire." 

" April 9. ( „ ) — Did this subject ever come under your 
notice ? I have lying before me a return of all the barracks in 
the United Kingdom, the date of their erection, their size, etc. 
It is to me one of the most discouraging and humiliating docu- 
ments I am acquainted with. Almost every considerable town 
has its barracks. They have nearly all been erected since 1790, 
before which date they were hardly known, and were denounced 
with horror by such men as Chatham, Fox, etc. By far the most 
extensive establishments have been erected during the last twenty- 
five years. I speak of Great Britain. As for Ireland, it is stud- 
ded over with barracks like a permanent encampment. I need 
not enlarge upon the direct moral evils of such places. One fact 
is enough : real property always falls in value in the vicinity of 
barracks. A prison or a cemetery is a preferable neighbor. But 
you will also see at a glance that this increase of barracks is the 
outward and visible sign of the increased discontent of the mass 
of the people, and the growing alarm of the governing classes. It 
argues great injustice on one side, or ignorance on the other, per- 
haps both. The expense is too obvious to require comment. And 
where is this to end ? Either we must change our system, — give 
the people a voice in the government, and qualify the rising 
generation to exercise the rights of freemen, — or we shall follow 
the fate of the Continent, and end in a convulsion. 

" You seem to be puzzled about my motion in favor of inter- 
national arbitration. Perhaps you have mixed it up with other 
theories to which I am no party. My plan does not embrace the 
scheme of a congress of nations, or imply the belief in the millen- 
nium, or demand your homage to the principles of non-resistance. 
I simply propose that England should offer to enter into an agree- 



340 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1849. 

ment with other countries, France, for instance, binding them to 
refer any dispute that may arise to arbitration. I do not mean 
to refer the matter to another sovereign power, but that each 
party should appoint plenipotentiaries in the form of commis- 
sioners, with a proviso for calling in arbitrators in case they 
cannot agree. In fact, I wish merely to bind them to do that 
before a war, which nations always do virtually after it. As for 
the argument that nations will not fulfil their treaties, that would 
apply to all international engagements. We have many prece- 
dents in favor of my plan. One advantage about it is that it 
could do no harm ; for the worst that could happen would be a 
resort to the means which has hitherto been the only mode of 
settling national quarrels. Will you think again upon the subject, 
and tell me whether there is anything impracticable about it ? 

" I will support the Oath Abolition motion. 1 There ought to 
be no swearing in courts at all. But instead of oaths, the clerk 
at the table ought to read to every witness, before he gives his 
evidence, the clause of the Act of Parliament which imposes a 
penalty for false testimony." 

"London, June 19. ( „ ) — I am glad you are satisfied with 
the debate on my arbitration motion. 2 I might have taken higher 
ground in my argument with more justice to the subject, and with 
more effect upon the minds of my readers, but I had to deal with 
an audience determined to sneer down the motion as Utopian. 
Ever since the beginning of the session, I had to run the gauntlet 
of the small wits of the House, who amused themselves at my 
expense, and tittered at the very word, arbitration. These men 
would have been as eager as any Quaker to profess a desire for 
peace, but were prepared to pooh-pooh as utterly visionary any 
plan for trying to put down the cherished institution of war. It 
was to meet these people on what they considered their strong 
ground, that I dwelt upon the practical views of my scheme, and 
it was some satisfaction to me to see nearly half of my audience 
leave the House without voting, and to draw from Lord Palmer- 
ston a speech full of admissions, which ended by an amendment 
avowedly framed to escape a direct negation of my motion. The 
more I have reflected upon the subject, the more I am satisfied 
that I am right at the right time. Next session I will repeat my 
proposition, and I will also bring the House to a division upon 
another and kindred motion, for negotiating with foreign countries, 

1 Lord John Russell's resolution, on which a Bill was afterwards founded, for the 
removal of Jewish disabilities. The Bill passed the Commons, but was rejected by 
the Lords. 

2 On June 12 Cobden moved an Address to Her Majesty, praying that foreign 
powers might be invited to concur in treaties, binding the parties to refer matters 
in dispute to Arbitration. Lord Palmerston moved the previous question. There 
was a rather languid debate, and the previous question was carried by 176 to 79. 



Jhh45.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 341 

for stopping any further increase of armaments, and, if possible, 
for agreeing to a gradual disarmament. These motions go naturally 
together. They are called for by the spirit of the age and the 
necessities of the finances of all the European states. 

" I agree with you in thinking that the French have displayed 
a want of conscientiousness and an excess of self-esteem in their 
treatment of the Eoman people. I do not remember in all history 
a more flagitious violation of justice than the French expedition 
and attack on Eome. The Republic of France within a year of 
its own existence putting down a Republic in a neighboring- 
country at the point of the bayonet, — a Republic born of the 
Parisian barricades, too, — is a monstrous outrage upon decency 
and common-sense. There is a certain retribution for these sins 
against the moral laws. They carry in them the seeds of their 
own punishment. When the French army is in occupation of 
Rome, then will begin the difficulty of the situation." 

"When the session was over, Cobden with indefatigable zeal 
pushed his propagandism in new fields. Though not a member, 
ne accompanied his friends of the Peace Society to the Peace 
Congress, which was this year held in Paris. 

" Paris, Aug. 19. {To Mrs. Cobden) — I have had my usual fate 
in passing the channel. Scarcely were we clear of the harbor at 
Newhaven, when I was laid on my beam-ends, and for six hours 
I never moved hand or foot. It was rather cold, and rained a 
little, so that I was obliged to be covered over with a couple of 
counterpanes, and there I lay like a mummy till unrolled in the 
harbor of Dieppe, at about half-past six o'clock. It makes my 
flesh creep to think of it. I tried to get a bed at the hotel where 
we stopped, but it was full, and I was therefore obliged to put up 
with the discomfort and bad odors of a second-rate place. The 
following morning at half-past eleven I started for Paris by rail- 
road, which goes through Rouen and along the valley of the Seine, 
and is decidedly the most picturesque scene of all the railroads 
I have traversed. We reached Paris at half-past four, and I am 
very comfortably installed at this hotel along with the Peace Com- 
mittee. There is every prospect of a large attendance at the 
Congress, but we shall not shine so brightly as I could wish in 
French names. Our friends had calculated upon the attraction 
of Lamartine's name, but they are disappointed. From all ac- 
counts he appears to be prostrated in mind, body, and estate. 
We have chosen Victor Hugo for chairman. He stands well 
socially, and his name is known, and he is one of the few first- 
rate men to be had. To my great surprise I find that Horace 
Say, after signing the circulars inviting the Congress, has gone off 
to Switzerland with his family. I thought him the most trust- 
worthy man in France. Bastiat is gone to Brussels, but I am 



342 LIFE OF COBDEN. [184y. 

assured he will come back to the Congress. The good men who 
have come here from England to make the arrangements, are 
sadly put out in their calculations of French support, by having 
taken too much to heart all the professions, promises, bows, and 
compliments, which they met with on their first arrival here. 
They are now taking such demonstrations at their just value. 
Notwithstanding, however, all drawbacks, the Congress will do 
much good. We shall pass a resolution condemnatory of war 
loans, which will serve hereafter as a basis for some demonstra- 
tions against the attempt to find money for Bussia in the city. 
I have not yet seen the Hogarths, or anybody I know. Yesterday 
I spent in looking about Paris. Paris externally looks the same 
as ever ■ but I fancy I see a haggard, careworn expression in the 
people's faces, which bespeaks past suffering and apprehension 
for the future. This may be imagination, but I think I see a 
great many sunken eyes and clenched lips amongst all classes. 
There have been terrible suffering and losses, and nobody has 
escaped it from the king to the cabman." 

" Paris, Aug. 25. ( „ ) — You will think me negligent, but if 
you saw how I have been placed here for the last three days you. 
would excuse me. I am at the headquarters of the Committee of 
Congress, and my bedroom (foolishly enough, on my part) is off 
the common sitting-room, and morning, noon, and night I have 
been in the melee. Besides, the French public persists in regard- 
ing me as a very important personage, and I have been more and 
more beset every day with visitors. But now the sittings of the 
Congress are over, and I am able to say that it has proved very 
successful ; each day more and more auditors of a highly respect- 
able class, and the last day thousands are said to have gone away 
without being able to enter. Everybody is astonished that upon 
such a subject, and at this hot season of the year, in Paris, too, a 
room holding 2000 persons should be crowded for three days run- 
ning, and upon the same subject. However, so it is. Everything 
is sure to succeed that has a good principle in it. All our good 
Quaker friends are in capital spirits. There can be no doubt that 
our meetings will have done good. Everybody has been talking 
about them during the week, and the subject of peace has for the 
first time had its hearing, even in France. My first speech, al- 
though there is really little in it, produced a famous effect in the 
audience and has been almost universally lauded in the papers. 
It ought to have been well received, for it cost me a good deal of 
time with the aid of Bastiat to write and prepare to read it. My 
good friend Bastiat has been two mornings with me in my room, 
translating and teaching, before eight o'clock. The Government 
has shown a very friendly disposition towards us. We have had 
all the public buildings and monuments thrown open to us. On 



;Ei'.4b.J CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 343 

Monday the Versailles water-works and the water-works at St. 
Cloud are to be set to play for the special gratification of the 
members of the Congress. These works play but four times a 
year on Sundays, and the Monday has been chosen on this occa- 
sion, in delicate compliment to the religious feeling of the English. 
To-night we are all invited, men and women, to De Tocqueville's, 
the French Foreign Minister. On Tuesday the deputation returns, 
and the members ought to be highly delighted with their visit." 

" Paris, Aug. 28. ( „ ) — After writing to you on Sunday I 
found that the post did not leave that evening, and that therefore 
my letter to you would not probably reach you till Wednesday. 
On Monday I dined with De Tocqueville with a small party. 
Yesterday (Monday) we had our excursion to Versailles in a special 
train at nine o'clock in the morning ; about 700 were in the party. 
We were shown freely over the palace, and then we went to a 
large hall called the Tennis Court, 1 in which luncheon was pro- 
vided. After it was over, I was moved into the chair, and we 
went through the interesting little ceremony of presenting to each 
of our American friends a copy of the New Testament in French, 
as a • tribute of our admiration for their zeal in coming so far to 
attend the Congress. Then we returned to the grounds of the 
palace, and saw the exhibition of the water-works, which was 
really a splendid sight. A vast crowd of French people was there, 
and they were exceedingly good-humored and polite, but they 
seemed to be unable to suppress their smiles at the Quakeresses' 
bonnets. From Versailles the train carried the party to St. Cloud 
to see the exhibition of the water-works there at night illu- 
minated." 

While Cobden was busied in this way, Mr. Bright had gone to 
study the Irish Question on the spot. He was a month in the 
country, and was accompanied for part of the time by one of the 
Commissioners of the Board of Works. His inquiries were ex- 
tensive and incessant, and what he had said about Irish affairs in 
some of his speeches secured for him particular attention on every 
side. Mr. Bright speedily put his finger upon the root of the mis- 
chief. What was universally demanded, he said, was security for 
improvements. Want of this was the cause of perpetual war be- 
tween landlord and tenant. In order to remove the evil, he agreed 
with the leading members of the practical party in Ireland, in 
certain contingencies to introduce a Bill which they were pre- 
paring for assuring to the tenant the value of his improvements. 
This is Cobclen's reply : — 

1 The famous scene of one of the most memorable incidents of the first stage in 
the French Revolution. Strange contrast between the mad agitation and furious 
resolve of the Oath of the Tennis Court, and this pacific presentation of New Testa- 
ments to the American Quakers ! 



344 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1849. 

" London, Oct. 1. {To Mr. Bright?) — I was glad to receive your 
letter, and much interested in the details of your visit to Ireland. 
Be assured you have done the right thing in going there. It is a 
duty that ought to be similarly fulfilled by all of us. 

" I was staying for a day or two after the receipt of your letter, 
with a friend in Sussex (Mr. Sharpe), whose son is the nominal 
proprietor through his mother of the late Sir Win. Brabazon's 
estate in Mayo. Both father and son were strong in praise of the 
Encumbered Estates Act, under which the Brabazon property, 
hopelessly encumbered and in Chancery, is to be disposed of. 

" The father, who is a Sussex proprietor, a liberal man, and a 
somewhat enrage political economist, hopes this Irish measure will 
be a stepping-stone for setting real estate at greater liberty in 
England. For myself I can't help thinking that everything has 
got to be done for Ireland. Hitherto the sole reliance has been 
on bayonets and patching. The feudal system presses upon that 
country in a way which, as a rule, only foreigners can understand, 
for we have an ingrained feudal spirit in our English character. I 
never spoke to a French or Italian economist who did not at once 
put his finger on the fact, that great masses of landed property 
were held by the descendants of a conquering race who were living 
abroad, and thus in a double manner perpetuating the remembrance 
of conquest and oppression, whilst the natives were at the same 
time precluded from possessing themselves of landed property and 
thus becoming interested in the peace of the country. This was 
always pointed out to me as the prime obstacle to improvement. 
How we are to get out of this dilemma with the present House of 
Commons, and our representative system as it is, is the problem. 
For we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that our law, or rather 
custom, of primogeniture, has its roots in the prejudices of the 
upper portion of the middle class as well as in the privileges of 
the aristocracy. The snobbishness of the moneyed classes in the 
great seats of commerce and manufactures is a fearful obstacle to 
any effectual change of the system. 

" It was only at the price of ten millions of money, and hun- 
dreds of thousands of famished victims, that we succeeded in 
passing our Encumbered Estates Bill. Our only consolation is 
that as we descend in the ranks of the middle class, and approach 
the more intelligent of the working people, the feudal prejudice 
diminishes ; and this brings us to our only hope for progress, 
whether in this question or the others on which we feel interested, 
namely, an increase in the popular element in the House of Com- 
mons. I have no fear that we can effect this change gradually, 
and certainly if we can induce our friends to work with persever- 
ance. I do not object to Walmsley's proceedings — in fact I am 
grateful to anybody that does anything but stagnate. I sub- 



^St.45.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 345 

scribed my mite to his association and have cheered him on. 
He has rendered this good service, at least, that he has brought 
middle-class people and Chartists together without setting them 
by the ears, and although he has rather shocked some moderate 
Liberals by his broad doctrines, he has carried others uncon- 
sciously with him. But this good being done, I have not dis- 
guised from him that mere public demonstrations without an 
organized system of working will do nothing towards effecting a 
change in the representation. That can only be done by local 
exertions in the registration courts, and above all by the forty- 
shilling votes in the counties. 

" Whilst at Eastbourne we talked this matter over with Fox, 
who was there, and we agreed that the County qualification 
movement ought to be encouraged as a means of extending the 
suffrage, without restricting its object to any particular scheme of 
organic or practical reforms. The forty -shilling freehold movement 
ought to he supported solely on the principle of extending the suffrage 
— and it is a scheme which involves so many moral and social 
benefits that it will be, I feel convinced, sustained by a great 
number of men of moral weight throughout the country who 
would not work with us for any large scheme of sudden organic 
change ; and these men, once enlisted with us, would go on after- 
wards for all that we desire. 

" I wrote to Taylor asking him some questions : first, whether 
he thought a delegate meeting of all those already engaged or 
willing to embark in the forty-shilling movement ought to be 
called. Second, whether he was receiving many letters upon the 
subject indicating a growing interest in the subject ; whether he 
was invited to go to meetings, and whether he could give me any 
statistics of the existing number of members, etc. Third, whether 
he thought a periodical to be called ' The Freeholder,' giving a 
condensed report of all proceedings and directions about registra- 
tion, etc., should be published by a Union of the Societies. Here 
is his answer. Making all deductions for his enthusiasm, it is 
clear there is life in his movement. If taken up zealously by all 
of us, I do believe that the present number of electors could be 
doubled in less than seven years, and, between ourselves, such a 
constituency would give you at the present moment a more reli- 
able support for thorough practical reforms than universal suffrage. 
May I predict that if we should succeed to the extent above 
named, there would not be wanting shrewd members of the Tory 
aristocracy who would be found advocating universal suffrage, to 
take their chance in an appeal to the ignorance and vice of the 
country against the opinions of the teetotalers, nonconformist 
and rational Radicals, who would constitute nine tenths of our 
phalanx of forty-shilling freeholders. I have sent you Taylor's 



346 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1849. 

letters. I feel much inclined, indeed I may say I am almost 
resolved, to go to Birmingham at the end of this month or the 
beginning of next to a delegate meeting. Tell me what you and 
Wilson think. Pray show him the letters. When I alluded to 
a circular to be called ' The Freeholder/ I meant a monthly pub- 
lication as a beginning, to give information and directions about 
qualifying, registering, etc., and to record the names and proceed- 
ings of all societies. But such a publication might grow into a 
powerful exponent of the laws of real property, and make people 
familiar with things which are now Hebrew and Greek to them. 

" I have bored you all so much about this forty-shilling free- 
hold scheme, that you seem to have fallen naturally into the idea 
that I cherish it to the exclusion of a broad and specific plan of 
reform. It is not so. I waot it as a means to all that we require, 
and upon my conscience it is, I believe, the only stepping-stone 
to any material change. The citadel of privilege in this country 
is so terribly strong, owing to the concentrated masses of property 
in the hands of the comparatively few, that we cannot hope to 
assail it with success unless with the help of the propertied classes 
in the middle ranks of society, and by raising up a portion of the 
working-class to become members of a propertied order ; and I 
know no other mode of enlisting such co-operation but that 
which I have suggested. . . . ." 

"Nov. 4. (To Mr. Bright) — If you know Mr. Kay's address, 
don't forget to impress upon him the importance of separating 
the question of land tenure from that of education in his forth- 
coming book. Nothing is more wanted than a good treatise on 
the former subject. The fate of empires, and the fortunes of their 
peoples, depend upon the condition of the proprietorship of land 
to an extent which is not at all understood in this country. We 
are a servile, aristocracy -loving, lord-ridden people, who regard 
the land with as much reverence as we still do the peerage and 
baronetage. Not only have not nineteen twentieths of us any 
share in the soil, but we have not presumed to think that we are 
worthy to possess a few acres of mother earth. The politicians who 
would propose to break up the estates of this country into smaller 
properties, will be looked upon as revolutionary democrats aim- 
ing at nothing less than the establishment of a Eepublic upon 
the ruin of Queen and Lords. 

" The only way of approaching this question with advantage at 
the present moment is through an economical argument. And 
Mr. Kay may do himself credit by his treatment of the subject, 
provided he gives us plenty of well-considered facts throwing 
light upon the comparative condition of the people in countries 
where land is subdivided, and where it is held in great masses. 
In my opinion the high moral and social condition of the inhabi- 



jEt.45.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 347 

tants of mountainous countries such as the Swiss, the Biscayans, 
etc., etc., is to be greatly attributed to the fact that as a rule the 
land in hilly countries is always more subdivided ; in fact, that 
the face of nature is almost an insuperable bar to the acquisition 
of large continuous sweeps of landed property. 

"P. S. — Don't you think that 'A History of Chartism,' from 
the framing of the Charter down to the present time, with a tem- 
perate but truthful narrative of the doings of the leaders, would 
be an interesting and useful work ? Somerville is the man to do 
it if he had access to a complete file of the Northern Star. The 
working- class are just now in the mood for reviewing with advan- 
tage the bombastic sayings and abortive doings of Feargus and 
his lieutenants. The attempted revival of the Chartist agitation 
under the old leadership makes this an appropriate time for such 
a retrospect. 

" The difficulty with Somerville would be to condense suffi- 
ciently his narrative — this would not be easy even with one who 
had a style less flowing and less imagination than he — for the 
temptation to quote largely from the speeches and letters of the 
big Chartist Bobadil would be almost irresistible. Would not 
such a work be interesting in a series of letters or articles in the 
Examiner, to be afterwards printed in a volume ? It would be 
certain to elicit a howl from the knaves who were subjected to the 
ordeal of the pillory, and this would be useful in attracting atten- 
tion to the book." 

"December 6. (To Mr. Bright) — You must get Captain Mundy's 
edition of ' Brooke's Diary.' It was published originally by Cap- 
tain Keppell, and some horrid passages were omitted by the dis- 
cretion of his friends ; but a new edition by Captain Mundy was 
published while Brooke was afterwards at home, and those parts 
were restored. See the first vol., p. 311, &c, and p. 325. There 
are details of bloodshed and executions which, if they had ap- 
peared in the first volume, would have checked the sentimental 
mania which gave Brooke all his powers of evil. 

"The above is information which I have from a friend who 
knows all about the affair from the beginning, and it may be relied 
on. I have not the book. I fear Gurney will be an obstacle to 
anything being done. I sometimes doubt whether his obstruct- 
iveness at every step does not more than counteract any advan- 
tage derived by the Society from the influence of his name. I 
don't understand men of the w r orld when they tell us we must rely 
upon the influence of Christian principles, and boggle at every 
proposal to enforce them in the current proceedings of govern- 
ments and societies. If a monk held such language in his cell, 
and invited us to rely upon fasts and flagellations, I could see 
some consistency in it. But when such sentiments come from a 



348 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1849. 

millionnaire in Lombard Street, they pass my comprehension. If 
I wished to do as little as possible, I should wish to be able to 
convince myself that I was in the path of duty when I folded my 
arms and exhorted people to pray for the triumph of Christian 
principles. St. Paul did something more than that, and so did 
George Fox. See the Manchester Examiner of Saturday next, for 
an article which I have sent upon the Borneo affair. The paper 
will be forwarded to you. I shall be at Leeds and Sheffield the 
week after next, and will allude to the subject if I can. It shocks 
me to think what fiendish atrocities may be committed by English 
arms without rousing any conscientious resistance at home, pro- 
vided they be only far enough off, and the victims too feeble to 
trouble us with their remonstrances or groans. We as a nation 
have an awful retribution in store for us if Heaven strike a just 
reckoning, as I believe it does, for wicked deeds even in this world. 
There must be a public and solemn protest against this wholesale 
massacre. The Peace Society and the Aborigines Society are 
shams if such deeds go unrebuked. We cannot go before the 
world with clean hands on any other question if we are silent 
spectators of such atrocities." 1 

" Dec. 8. ( ,, ) — You seem to have fallen into the idea that 
I am looking to the freehold plan as a substitute for a thorough 
reform. I look to it as a means to do something, and not an end. 
I wish to abate the power of the aristocracy in their strongholds. 
Our enemy is as subtle as powerful, and I fear some of us have 
not duly weighed the difficulties of our task. The aristocracy are 
afraid of nothing but systematic organization and step-by-step 
progress. They know that the only advantage we of the stirring 
class have over them is in habits of persevering labor. They fear 
nothing but the application of these qualities to the business of 
political agitation. I prize the privilege of our platforms, and the 
power of public discussion and denunciation, as much as anybody; 
but public meetings for Parliamentary Reform which do not tend 
to systematic work (as was not the case in the League), will be 
viewed by the aristocracy with complacency as the harmless blow- 
ing off of the steam. 

" With this impression, I have urged upon Walmsley an organi- 
zation for bringing the registers of the Boroughs under the control 
of men of his way of thinking, men favorable ■ to the four points. 
This, coupled with the County qualification movement, which is 
urged on by men of the same party, would in two or three years if 
resolutely worked place us in a respectable position in the House. 

" You seem to speak as if I were the obstacle to the movement 
being carried out in Manchester last year. My own fear was lest 

1 Borneo affairs were not fully discussed in Parliament until 1851, when Cobden 
supported Hume's motion for inquiry. 



Mt. 45.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 349 

the public elsewhere should be deceived as to what we should do 
for them in Manchester, for I felt that we had not the materials 
there to renew such an agitation as was proposed. It is not in 
human nature that, after the exhaustion of one great effort, the 
same men should begin another of an equally arduous character. 
I am also of opinion that we have not the same elements in 
Lancashire for a Democratic Eeform movement, as we had for Free 
Trade. To me the most discouraging fact in our political state is 
the condition of the Lancashire Boroughs, where, with the excep- 
tion of Manchester, nearly all the municipalities are in the hands 
of the stupidest Tories in England ; and where we can hardly see 
our way for an equal half-share of Liberal representation in Par- 
liament. We have the labor of Hercules in hand to abate the 
power of the aristocracy and their allies, the snobs of the towns. 
I have faith in nothing but slow and heavy toil, and I shall lose 
all hope if we cannot see with toleration, and a desire to encour- 
age, every effort that aims at curtailing the power and privileges 
of the common enemy." 

Cobden was never so immersed in political projects as to forget 
how much of the vital work of social improvement lies entirely 
away from the field of politics. While he was corresponding with 
Mr. Bright about economic and parliamentary reform, and with 
George Combe about education, he did not lose sight of a third 
cause which seemed to him, as it has always done to Mr. Bright 
also, not any less important to the national welfare than either of 
the other two. The letter which follows was written to Mr. 
Livesey, a zealous advocate for the promotion of Temperance: — 

"London, Oct. 10. — Your letter has given me very great pleas- 
ure. It has often been a matter of sincere regret to me that I 
have not had the pleasure since my return to England of shaking 
hands with you. I have taken up my abode permanently here, 
for being obliged to be six months in London, and finding it intol- 
erable to be so long separated from my family, I had no alterna- 
tive but to make choice of one abode, or to have two removals of 
my household every year, which is both unpleasant and expensive. 
As I had no business ties in Manchester, I was tempted by the 
climate to leave my esteemed friends and neighbors to settle here, 
where I shall never form the sterling friendships that I possessed 
in Lancashire. The damp and rigorous climate of South Lanca- 
shire, with its clay soil, never agreed with my constitution, which 
requires a more genial temperature and a sandy, dry soil, such as 
I was used to in my early days in Sussex. My abode is near the 
Great Western Station, Paddington, the highest part, as well as 
the driest, of the metropolis. 

" You are right in the path of usefulness you have chalked out 
for yourself ; the temperance cause really lies at the root of all 



350 LTFE OF COBDEN. '[1849. 

social and political progression in this countrj 7 ". The English peo- 
ple are, in many respects, the most reliable of all earthly beings. 
I am not one who likes to laud the Anglo-Saxon race as being 
superior to all others in every quality ; for when we remember 
that we owe our religion to Asiatics, our literature, architecture, 
and fine arts greatly to the Greeks, our numeral signs to the 
Arabs, our civilization to the inhabitants of Italy, and much of our 
physical science and mechanical inventions to the Germans ; when 
we recollect these things it ought to make us moderate in our ex- 
clusive pretensions. But give me a sober Englishman, possessing 
the truthfulness common to his country, and the energy so pecul- 
iarly his own, and I will match him for being capable of equal- 
ling any other man in the every-day struggles of life. He has a 
self-depending and self-governing instinct which carries him 
triumphantly through all difficulties and dangers. But in trav- 
elling through all civilized countries, I have often been struck 
with the superiority that foreigners enjoy over us from their 
greater sobriety, which imparts to them higher advantages of civ- 
ilization, even when they are really far behind us in the average 
of education and in political institutions. The energy natural to 
the English race degenerates to savage brutality under the influ- 
ence of habitual drunkenness ; and one of the worst effects of 
intemperate habits is to destroy that self-respect which lies at the 
bottom of all virtuous ambition. It is here that I have often been 
struck with the inferiority of our working people, at least that 
portion of them which habitually indulges in drunkenness, happily 
every year diminishing in number. They want the decent self- 
possession and courteous manners which you find among more 
sober nations. If you could convert us into a nation of water- 
drinkers, I see no reason why, in addition to our being the most 
energetic, we should not be the most polished people, for we are 
inferior to none in the inherent qualities of the gentleman, truth- 
fulness and benevolence. With these sentiments, I need not say 
how much I reverence your efforts in the cause of teetotalism, and 
how gratified I was to find that my note ( written privately, by 
the way, to Mr. Cassell ) should have afforded you any satisfaction. 
I am a living tribute to the soundness of your principles. ■ With a 
delicate frame and nervous temperament, I have been enabled, by 
temperance, to do the work of a strong man. But it has only been 
by more and more temperance. In my early days I used some- 
times to join with others in a glass of spirit and water, and beer 
was my every-day drink. I soon found that spirits would not do, 
and for twenty years I have not taken a glass unless as a medicine. 
Then port and sherry became almost as incompatible with my 
mental exertions, and for many years I have not touched those 
wines excepting for form's sake in after-dinner society. Latterly, 



jEt.45.] CORRESPONDENCE, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 351 

when dining out, I find it necessary to mix water even with 
champagne. At my own table I never have anything but water 
when dining with my family, and we have not a beer-barrel in the 
house. For some years we have stipulated with all our servants 
to drink water, and we allow them extra wages to show that we 
do not wish to treat them worse than our neighbors. All my 
children will, I hope, be teetotalers. So you see that, without 
beginning upon principle, I have been brought to your beverage 
solely by a nice observance of what is necessary to enable me to 
surmount an average mental labor of at least twelve hours a day. 
I need not add that it would be no sacrifice to me to join your 
ranks by taking the pledge. On the contrary, it would be a 
satisfaction to me to know that from this moment I should never 
taste fermented drink again. Shall I confess it ? My only re- 
straining feeling would be that it would compel a singularity of 
habits in social life. Not that this would, I trust, be an insur- 
mountable obstacle, if paramount motives of usefulness urged me 
to the step." 

In connection with the same subject, he wrote to Mr. Ashworth, 
mildly protesting against a political banquet, and pointing out the 
superior courage of the Americans in their way of making war on 
this particular temptation to excessive self-indulgence : — 

" Dec. 13. — I am not quite sure that dinner-parties are the best 
tactics for our party to fall into in Manchester. Our strength lies 
with the shopocracy, and I think the members for Manchester are 
turning their backs upon the main army of reformers when they 
leave the Free Trade Hall for a meeting of any kind in a smaller 
room. Public dinners are good for our opponents, but I have more 
faith in teetotalism than bumper glasses, so far as the interests of 
the democracy are concerned. The moral force of the masses lies 
in the temperance movement, and I confess I have no faith in any- 
thing apart from that movement for the elevation of the working 
class. We do not sufficiently estimate the amount of crime, vice, 
poverty, ignorance, and destitution, which springs from the drink- 
ing habits of the people. The Americans have a clearer perception 
of the evils of drunkenness upon the political and material prospects 
of the people, and their leading men set an example of temperance 
on all public occasions. I lately read an account of a great 
political meeting in New Hampshire, at which Daniel Webster 
presided, when fifteen hundred persons sat down to dinner, at 
which not a drop of wine, spirits, or beer was drunk. Depend on 
it, they were more than a match for four times their number of 
wine-bibbers. You will wonder why I preach this homily to you. 
But it is apropos of the Corn Exchange dinner. . . . Sure am I 
that, when the election day comes, the teetotalers will be found 
the best workers in the ranks of the Liberals, whilst the drinkers 
will be the only hope of the Tories." 



352 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

"I remember that one year (1843)," Cobden once wrote to 
Combe, by way of illustrating this matter, "Bright, Colonel 
Thompson, and I, invaded Scotland and made a tour of the king- 
dom, separating as we entered and reuniting at Stirling on the 
completion of our work. There, after a large public meeting, we 
adjourned to our hotel, where we were joined by a number of 
baillies and other leading men, who sat with us, to our great dis- 
comfort (for we needed our beds ), till one o'clock in the morning, 
drinking whiskey-toddy out of glasses which they filled from 
tumblers with little ladles, and I remember that a certain sleight 
of hand in this operation, acquired, I suppose, by long practice, 
amused us Southrons a good deal. As we three Englishmen took 
nothing but tea, it drew attention to our total abstinence princi- 
ples, which were then more rare than at present. We compared 
notes with one another in the hearing of the baillies, and found 
that in our tour in Scotland not a shilling had been paid by us 
for spirits, beer, or wine." Their companions were at first disposed 
to eye them rather contemptuously, but after hearing them re- 
count the work they had gone through, the number of meetings 
they had attended, very often two in one day, the baillies were 
constrained to admit, as they placed their ladles finally in the 
emptied tumblers, that water-drinking was not incompatible with 
indomitable energy and long perseverance in exhausting labor. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

THE DON PACTFICO DEBATE — THE PAPAL AGGRESSION — CORRE- 
SPONDENCE WITH MR. BRIGHT ON REFORM — KOSSUTH. 

The year 1850 has an important place in the history of Cobden's 
principles, because it is the date of a certain discussion in Parlia- 
ment which marked the triumph for the rest of his life, though 
for no longer, of the school which was inveterately antagonistic 
to his whole scheme of national policy. The famous Don Pacifico 
debate was the turning-point in the career of Lord Palmerston, 
and it was the first clear signal of the repulse of Cobden's cher- 
ished doctrine for twenty years to come. 

Lord Palmerston had been at the Foreign Office for four years. 
During that time he had been incessantly active in the affairs of 
half the countries of Europe. That taquinerie of which Bastiat 
complained so bitterly to Cobden, was at its height. Nothing like 
it was ever seen in our politics before or since. He had brought 



^t.46.] THE DON PACIFICO DEBATE. 353 

England to the brink of war with France in connection with the 
Spanish Marriages. He had sent the fleet to the Tagus to prevent 
the people of Portugal from settling their internal affairs in their 
own way. He had plunged into the thick of the dangerous Euro- 
pean complications connected with the civil war among the Swiss 
Cantons. An English agent had been despatched on a roving 
commission to the states south of the Alps, to teach politics, as 
Mr. Disraeli said, to the country where Machiavelli was born. 
When war broke out between the King of Naples and his subjects 
in Sicily, Lord Palmerston's emissary rode the whirlwind and tried 
to guide the storm. The bustling delirium came to a climax when 
the Foreign Secretary told his ambassador at Madrid to give a 
severe lecture to the Spanish Government for failing to respect 
the opinions and sentiments of their country. With a laudable 
sense of their own dignity, the Spanish Government sent Lord 
Palmerston's despatch back, and ordered the British Minister to 
leave the country in eight and forty hours. Lord Palmerston sin- 
cerely believed that he was carrying out those vague and much 
disputed objects which go by the name of the Principles of Mr. 
Canning. Nor has any one ever denied that in all this untiring 
restlessness he was moved by an honest interest in good govern- 
ment, or by a vigorous resolution that his country should play a 
prominent and worthy part in settling the difficulties of Europe. 
The conception had about it a generous and taking air. It was 
magnificent, but unluckily there was no sense in it. For the un- 
reflecting portion of mankind the spectacle of energy on a large 
scale has alwaj^s irresistible attractions ; vigor becomes an end in 
itself and an object of admiration for its own sake. ISTow that the 
contemporary mists have cleared away, everybody can see that 
Lord Palmerston's vigor at this epoch was futile in its ultimate 
results to others, and in its immediate circumstances full of the 
gravest danger to ourselves. It kept us constantly on the edge 
of war, it involved waste of our resources, and it diverted atten- 
tion from the long list of improvements that were so sorely needed 
within our own gates. 

With what feeling Cobden watched these doings, we may ima- 
gine. They roused him to renewed assaults upon the public opin- 
ion which tolerated or abetted them. Throughout the autumn of 
1849 he and his friends pursued their operations with all their 
usual zeal and confidence. He made speeches at Leeds, Bradford, 
Manchester, and others of the northern towns, saying over again 
with new illustrations what he had been saying during the pre- 
vious session about retrenchment, readjusted taxation, the neces- 
sity of lessened armaments, the impolicy of our colonial relations. 
People listened, were keenly interested, and in the course of years 
the seed which Cobden was sowing germinated and bore good 

23 



354 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

fruit. But there were for the moment certain transactions' in 
Eastern Europe which stirred popular passion in England to the 
depths, and prepared the way for those unfortunate events which 
five years later seemed to dash the whole fabric of Cobden's hopes 
down to the ground. 

The Hungarian War of Independence was one of the most re- 
markable incidents in the revolutionary outburst of 1848, as its 
suppression was one of the most important episodes in the abso- 
lutist reaction which so speedily followed. The Czar of Eussia 
came to the aid of the Emperor of Austria ; after a brave resist- 
ance the Hunoarian forces were forced to surrender to the Eussian 
general ; while Kossuth and others of the patriotic leaders crossed 
the frontier into the Turkish provinces, and placed themselves 
under the protection of the Ottoman Porte. The two northern 
powers demanded that the refugees should be handed over by the 
Turkish government, and for some time Europe looked Math in- 
tense excitement upon the diplomatic struggle. Cobden shared 
to the full the vehement indignation with which his countrymen 
had watched these evil transactions. At the same time he did 
not fail to see the danger of this just sympathy with a good cause 
turning into an irresistible cry for armed intervention on behalf 
of Hungarian Independence and its champions. It must be owned 
that Cobden's position was a very delicate one. It seems to the 
present writer to be impossible to state the principle of non- 
intervention in rational and statesmanlike terms, if it is under all 
circumstances, and without any qualification or limit, to preclude 
an armed protest against intervention by other foreign powers. 
There may happen to be good reasons why we should on a given 
occasion passively watch a foreign Government interfering by vio- 
lence in the affairs of another country. Our own Government may 
have its hands full ; or it may have no military means of inter- 
vening to good purpose ; or its intervention might in the long-run 
do more harm than good to the objects of its solicitude. But there 
can be no general prohibitory rule. Where, as here, a military 
despot interfered to crush the men of another country while strug- 
gling for their national rights, no principle can make it wrong for 
a free nation to interfere by force against him. It can only be a 
question of expediency and prudence. 

Of course so obvious a distinction was not unperceived by Cob- 
den, and he had a sufficiently strong case without straining the 
general principle further than it can legitimately be made to go. 
At a meeting which was held at the London Tavern to protest 
against the Eussian invasion of Hungary, he set forth in definite 
language his view of the nature and the duty of a right interven- 
tion. By a singular chance, Lord Palmerston forgot to meddle, even 
by a lecture, in the one case at this date where he might possibly 



^t.46.] THE DON PACIFICO DEBATE. 355 

have meddled to good effect. Russia, said Cobden, was allowed 
to march, her armies across the territory of Turkey, through Wal- 
lachia and Moldavia, to strike a death-blow at the heart of Hun- 
gary, and yet no protest was recorded by our Government against 
that act. It was his deliberate conviction, as it was that of the 
most illustrious men who were engaged in the Hungarian struggle, 
that if Lord Palmerston had made a simple verbal protest in ener- 
getic terms, Russia would never have invaded Hungary. " It is 
well known," he said, " that the Ministers of the Czar almost went 
down on their knees to beg and entreat him not to embark in a 
struggle between Austria and Hungary. Our protest would im- 
mediately have been backed by the Ministry of the Czar if it had 
been made ; and I believe it would have prevented that most 
atrocious outrage upon the rights and liberties of a constitutional 
country." This protest he would have made, but he would have 
resisted any attempt to fight the battle of Hungary on the banks 
of the Danube or the Theiss. 

In other words, he would have relied upon opinion. He was 
too practical to dream that regard for purely moral opinion Qould 
be trusted to check the overbearing impulse of powerful selfish 
interests. Wars, however, constantly arise not from the irrecon- 
cilable clashing of great interests of this kind, but from misman- 
aged trifles. This was what he had maintained in his .argument 
for arbitration. The grave and unavoidable occasions for war, he 
said, are few. In the ordinary dealings of nations with one 
another, where a difference arises, it is about something where ex- 
ternal opinion might easily be made to carry decisive weight. In 
the undecided state of the Czar's mind as to the invasion of Hun- 
gary, a vigorous expression of English opinion might and probably 
would have made all the difference. However that might be, it is 
the duty of the more highly civilized powers to lose no oppor- 
tunity of shaping and strengthening the common opinion of Eu- 
rope against both intervention of nations in one another's affairs, 
and against war for the first resort instead of the very last, as the 
means of settling international differences. 

At this time Cobden warmly took up what seemed a most 
effective way of checking war and the preparations for war on the 
part of the two powers whose tyrannical action had inflamed the 
resentment of his countrymen. With singular fire he entered on 
a crusade against the practice of lending, first to Austria and then 
to Russia, the great sums of money which were under various dis- 
guises and pretexts in effect borrowed to repay the cost of the late 
oppressive war. In October he delivered a powerful speech 
against the Austrian loan of seven millions. In the following 
January he convened a meeting at which he denounced with still 
more unsparing invective the loan of five and a half millions 



356 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

which was asked for by Eussia. He insisted that the investment 
was unsound ; that the funding system is injurious to maukind 
and unjust in principle ; that the exportation of capital to be 
destroyed and lost in the bottomless abyss of foreign wars, is con- 
trary to the principles of political economy. What paradox could 
be more flagrant, he asked, than for a citizen to lend money to be 
the means of military preparations on the part of a foreign Power, 
when he knew, or ought to have known, that these very prepara- 
tions for which he was providing would in their turn impose upon 
himself and the other tax-payers of his own country the burden 
of counter-preparations to meet them ? What man with the most 
rudimentary sense of public duty could pretend that it was no 
affair of his to what use his money was put, so long as his interest 
was high and his security adequate ? What was this money 
wanted for ? Austria, with her barbarous consort, had been 
engaged in a cruel and remorseless war, and now she came, 
stretching forth her bloodstained hand to honest Dutchmen and 
Englishmen, and asking them to furnish the force of this hateful 
devastation. Not only was such a system a waste of national 
wealth, an anticipation of income, a destruction of capital, the 
imposition of a heavy and profitless burden on future genera- 
tions : besides all this, it was a direct connivance at acts and a 
policy which the very men who were thus asked to lend their 
money to support it professed to dislike and condemn, and had 
good reason for disliking and condemning. This system of foreign 
loans for warlike purposes, Cobden argued, by which England, 
Holland, Germany, and France are invited to pay for the arms, 
clothing, and food of the belligerents, is a system calculated to 
perpetuate the horrors of war. Those, moreover, who lend money 
for such purposes, are destitute of any of those excuses by which 
men justify resort to the sword. They cannot plead patriotism, 
self-defence, or even anger, or the lust of military glory. They 
sit down coolly to calculate the chances to themselves of profit or 
loss in a game in which the lives of human beings are at stake. 
They have not even the savage and brutal gratification which the 
old pagans had, after they had paid for a seat in the amphi- 
theatre, of witnessing the bloody combats of gladiators in the 
circus. 1 

It is impossible not to admire the courage, the sound sense, and 
the elevation, with which Cobden thus strove to diffuse the notion 
of moral responsibility in connection with the use of capital. 
Such a doctrine was a novelty even in the pulpit, and much more 
of a novelty on the platform. The press, which never goes be- 
fore public opinion in such things, and usually lags a little way 

1 Speeches, ii. 189. 



JIt.46.] THE DON PACIFICO DEBATE. 357 

behind, attacked him with its rudest weapons. The City resented 
the intrusion of the irrelevances of right and wrong into the region 
of scrip, premium, and speculative percentage. Even some of his 
own friends asked him why, on their common principles of Free 
Trade, he could not let them lend their money in the dearest mar- 
ket and borrow in the cheapest ; why there was not to be Free 
Trade in money as in everything else. 1 Few reformers find the 
path easy, but for none is it so hard as for him who introduces a 
new morality. Cobden could not flinch, because he was far- 
sighted enough to perceive that the destination of capital be- 
comes more vitally important in proportion as society becomes 
more democratic. Germany is an instance before our eyes at this 
moment how, with modern populations, the destruction of capital 
in military enterprises breeds Socialism. As population increases, 
so does the necessity increase of wisely husbanding the resources 
on which it depends for subsistence. As political power now 
finds its way from the few to the masses, so much the more urgent 
is it that they should be taught to see how detrimental war is to 
them, not merely because it destroys human life, which after all 
is cheap, but because it plays havoc with the material instruments 
which raise or maintain that no less momentous object, the habit 
and standard of living. 

Cobden's urgent feeling about war was not in any degree senti- 
mental ; it arose from a truly philosophic view of the peculiar 
requirements which the changing forces and condition of modern 
society had brought with them. He opposed war, because war 
and the preparation for it consumed the resources which were 
required for the improvement of the temporal condition of the 
population. Sir Eobert Peel had anticipated him in pressing 
upon Parliament the danger to European order . arising from 
military expenditure. Heavy military expenditure, he said, 
meant heavy taxation, and heavy taxation meant discontent and 
revolution. That wise statesman had courageously repudiated 
the old maxim, Bellum para si pacem veils. A maxim that admits 
of more contradiction, he said, or one that should be received with 
greater reserve, never fell from the lips of man. What is always 
still more important, Peel was not afraid to say that it is impossi- 
ble to secure a country against all conceivable risks. If in time 

1 "I was told that a man had a right to lend his money without inquiring what 
it was wanted for. But if he knew it was wanted for a vile purpose, had he a right 
of so lending it ? I put this question to a City man : — ' Somebody asks you to 
lend money to build houses with, and you know it is wanted for the purpose of 
building infamous houses : would you be justified in lending the money ? ' He re- 
plied, ' I would.' I rejoined, ' Then I am not going to argue with you — you are 
a man for the police magistrate to look after ; for if you would lend money to 
build infamous houses, you would very likely keep one yourself if you could get 
ten per cent by it.' " — Speeches, ii. 418. 



358 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

of peace you insist on having all the colonial garrisons up to the 
standard of complete efficiency, and if every fortification is to be 
kept in a state of perfect repair, then no amount of annual 
expenditure can ever be sufficient. If you accept the opinions of 
military men, who tell a Minister that they would throw upon 
him the whole responsibility in the event of a war breaking out, 
and predict the loss of this or the other valuable possession, then 
the country must be overwhelmed by taxation. It is inevitable 
that risks should be run. Peel's declaration was, and must at all 
times remain, the language of common sense, and it furnishes the 
key to Cobden's characteristic attitude towards a whole class of 
political questions where his counsels have been most persistently 
disregarded. 1 

It was thus from the political, and not from the religious or 
humanitarian side, that Cobden sought to arouse men to the 
criminality of war. If an unnecessary war is a crime, then to 
supply the funds for it, even for the sake of an extra fraction per 
cent, is to be an accessory before or after the fact in that crime. 
And that is the wise and timely sermon for which Cobden took 
the events of those days for a text. In the case of land, the world 
was quite ready to recognize the truth, that property has its duties 
as well as its rights. Cobden's view on the morality of war loans 
extends the same principle to the whole administration of prop- 
erty of every kind. 

Speculative forecasts of this sort were uncongenial enough to 
the veteran practitioner at the Foreign Office, who manipulated 
events on other principles. Things were now moving strangely 
counter to Cobden's hopes. When Eussia and Austria pressed 
for the surrender of the Hungarian refugees, Lord Palmerston de- 
spatched the fleet to the Dardanelles by way of encouragement to 
the Porte to hold firm. According to Cobden, this was a superflu- 
ous display of force. As he contended, the demands of Eussia and 
Austria had been already withdrawn in face of a vigorous display 
of the public opinion of Western Europe. What is certain is that 
Lord Palmerston's action at this time laid the train which not 
long afterwards exploded in the Crimean War. His next step 
was exactly calculated to embitter the chronic struggle between 
England, France, and Eussia in the East, and by its peculiar 
lawlessness to set an example, which was sure to be followed, of 
the worst possible w T ay of settling international difficulties. There 
happened to be certain claims which the British Government had 
for a long time been pressing against the kingdom of Greece. 
A portion of these claims were made on behalf of a Portuguese 
Jew from Gibraltar, whom accident of domicile made a British 

1 The passage from Peel was quoted by Cobden, Speeches, ii. 414. 



.ffiT.46.] THE DON PACIFICO DEBATE. 359 

subject, and after him the whole episode has been known as the 
affair of Don Pacifico. What Lord Palmerston did was to despatch 
the fleet on its way back from the Dardanelles to the Piraeus. 
There it detained not only a man-of-war belonging to the Greek 
Government, but a number of merchant vessels owned by private 
individuals. They were detained as material guaranties. There 
has been very little difference of opinion since, that this was an 
intolerably high-handed proceeding. As is observed by Finlay, 
the sagacious historian of Greece, who chanced to be a claimant, 
though of a more reputable sort than Don Pacifico, no Govern- 
ment in a civilized state of society can be allowed to have a right 
to seize private property belonging to the subjects of another 
State, or to blockade the port of another State, without taking 
upon itself the responsibility of declaring war. 1 Apart from this, 
it was a direct and certain provocation to two Powers, whom it 
was especially our interest at this time to soothe and conciliate. 2 

France interposed with the proffer of good offices, and they 
were accepted. But Lord Palmerston so blundered and misman- 
aged the subsequent negotiations, that at one moment we were 
brought unpleasantly near to a rupture with the French Govern- 
ment, while we were at the same time exposed to remonstrances 
from Eussia, of which the most mortifying feature was that they 
were absolutely and unanswerably well founded both in policy 
and international morality. From beginning to end, alike in its 
inception and in every detail of it, equally in its purpose and its 
results, it was probably the most inept, futile, wrong-headed, and 
gravely mischievous transaction in which Lord Palmerston's reck- 
lessness ever engaged him. 

The discussion which took place upon these doings in the 
House of Commons really covered the whole of Lord Palmerston's 
policy, and the spirit and the principles of it. Not Sir Ptobert 
Peel alone, but" Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Disraeli, Sir James Graham, 
and Cobden, all bore with overpowering weight against the 
Minister, not only for his impolitic act in regard to Greece, but 
for his intervention in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and every- 

1 See Mr. Finlay's story of the whole transaction in his most valuable Hist, of 
Greece, vii. 211, &c. Mr. Finlay's verdict is that "the whole affair reflects very 
little credit on any of the Governments that took part in it." 

2 "I conceive," said Sir Robert Peel, "that there was an obvious mode of set- 
tling the claims without offending France, and without provoking a rebuke from 
Russia. My belief is that, without any compromise of your own dignity, you might 
have got the whole money you demanded, and avoided the difficulties in which you 
have involved yourselves with these Powers. With regard to Russia, you had just 
asserted the authority of England by remonstrating with her for attempting to expel 
ten refugees from Turkey. She acquiesced in your demands ; and with regard to 
France you had all but" the certainty of obtaining her cordial sympathy and good 
feeling. There never was a period in which it was more the interest of this country 
to conciliate the good feeling of Russia and France." — Speech in the Don Pacifico 
Debate, June 28. Hansard, cxii. 683. 



360 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

where else. Lord Palinerston defended himself from the dusk of 
one day until the dawn of another with an energy and skill which 
commanded the admiration even of those who thought worst of 
his case. He was supported by Mr. Cockburn, afterwards the 
brilliant Chief Justice of our time, in a speech which is. undeniably 
one of the most glittering and successful pieces of advocacy ever 
heard either in forum or senate. It is only when we turn to the 
real facts and the sober reason of the case, that we perceive that 
the fine things and impassioned turns of this striking performance 
were in truth no better than heroics for the jury and superb clap- 
trap. 1 Half-a-dozen of Sir Eobert Peel's sober sentences in his 
reply — the last speech that he ever made — were enough to over- 
throw the whole gorgeous fabric. 

The issues were broadly and unmistakably placed. Whether 
in defending the rights of British subjects abroad, or in other 
dealings with foreign nations, the Minister of this country ought 
to seek his end by politic and conciliatory means, or go rudely to 
it by violence and armed force ? Whether it is his business to 
interfere with lectures or with ships in the domestic affairs of 
other countries, even on the side of self-government ? Whether 
he should seek and manufacture occasions for intervention, or 
should on the contrary be too slow rather than too quick in 
recognizing even such occasions as arise of themselves ? Whether 
interference should be frequent, peremptory, and at any cost, or 
should on the contrary be " rare, deliberate, decisive in character, 
and effectual for its end " ? 2 Whether England should make 
light of the restraints of the law of nations, pushing the claim of 
the Civis Romanics with a high and unflinching hand, or should 
on the contrary by her strictness of care and scruple fortify and 
enlarge that domain which justice and peace have already ac- 
quired for themselves among the brotherhood of nations ? Such 
were the topics and the issues of the controversy. The victory 
was to the old idols of the tribe and the market-place. The for- 

1 As Cobden left the House after Mr. Cockburn's speech, he was joined by Mr. 
Disraeli. "I call yours," he said to Cobden, "the Manchester School of Oratory ; 
and I call his the Crown and Anchor School." * Cobden was never a great admirer 
of the eloquent lawyer. The first occasion on which they met was at a dinner- 
party during the height of the. League agitation. "He took the Protectionists' 
side," said Cobden, "and we had a long wrangle before the whole company. As I 
was top-sawyer on that plank, I had no difficulty in flinging him pretty often." 
They met again at dinner the very day after the Pacifico division. Sir Alexander 
Cockburn permitted himself to use some of those asperities — Cobden called them 
by a more stinging name — which the sworn party-man is apt to use against a con- 
scientious dissident. He told Cobden that he ought to be turned out of the Reform 
Club. But Cobden was always able to hold his own against impertinence, and the 
advocate took little by his motion. 

* Mr. Gladstone's description. 

* Cobden to J. Parkes, Nov. 23, 1856. 



.ffir.46.] THE DON PACIFICO DEBATE. 361 

eign policy of Lord Palmerston was approved, and its author en- 
couraged, by a majority of six and forty. 

The effect of this remarkable debate was very great. It is true 
that it was not wholly a debate on the merits. Under govern- 
ment by parties, a debate wholly on the merits is very uncommon. 
The question nominally at issue was mixed up with suspicion of 
a French diplomatic conspiracy, and belief in a Protectionist in- 
trigue. The public was indignant that a domestic faction should 
lend itself for purposes of its own to a cabal of foreigners against 
a Minister who had been too clever for them. It is true, also, 
that when we talk of the public during these years, the phrase 
does not designate the nation at large, even in the limited sense 
in which it does this now. In every epoch the political public 
really means the people who have votes, and at that time the 
people who had votes were an extremely small fraction of the na- 
tion at large. When that is said, however, there is very little doubt 
that the language which Lord Palmerston used on this occasion 
was the language which the majority of Englishmen were not 
sorry to hear, and would not be likely to repudiate when it had 
been boldly spoken. The day after the Don Pacifico debate, Lord 
Palmerston was justified in speaking of himself as having been 
rendered by it the most popular Minister that for a very long 
time had held his office. 1 

The confusion of parties made this sudden exaltation of Lord 
Palmerston a very important event, and we may believe that he 
was quite alive to the possibilities which it opened to his ambition. 
Public life, as was said, was divided at that particular moment 
between statesmen without a party and a party without states- 
men. Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli had made a bold bid for 
power, but Lord Palmerston foresaw that they could not keep it 
if they got it. The reforming Whigs of the type of Lord John 
Kussell had been steadily losing ground ever since their brilliant 
triumph twenty years before, and they were now lower in popular 
influence than they had ever been. The Manchester school were 
out of the question. There was one statesman only whose au- 
thority, and the clearness of whose convictions, might have 
balked Lord Palmerston's rise, and have saved the country from 
the demoralization of the Palmerstonian reign. This statesman, 
by a most disastrous destiny, met his death the very day after 
he had protested with all the cogent sagacity of his ripened ex- 
perience against Lord Palmerston's unsafe policy, and his mis- 
taken impressions of the honor and dignity of the country. 

The death of Sir Eobert Peel may without exaggeration be de- 
scribed as one of the most untoward incidents in Cobden's public 

1 Mr. Ashley's Life, ii. 161. 



362 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

life, as it was a dire and irreparable loss to the country. Cobden 
was instantly alive to the calamity. " Poor Peel," he wrote three 
days after the event, "I have scarcely yet realized to my mind 
the conviction that he will never again occupy his accustomed 
seat opposite to my place in the House. I sat with him on Sat- 
urday till two o'clock in the Eoyal Commission 1 — the last public 
business in which he was engaged — and in four hours afterwards 
he received his mortal stroke. We do not yet know the full ex- 
tent of our loss. It will be felt in the state of parties and in the 
progress of public business to its full extent hereafter. I had 
observed his tendencies most attentively during the last few years, 
and had felt convinced that on questions in which I take a great 
interest, such as the reduction of armaments, retrenchment of ex- 
penditure, the diffusion of peace principles, etc., he had strong 
sympathies — stronger than he had yet expressed — in favor of 
my views. Eead his last speech again, and observe what he says 
about diplomacy, and in favor of settling international disputes 
by reference to mediation instead of by ships of war." 2 

If the Don Pacifico debate in Parliament gave a check to the 
confidence of Cobden's aspirations, a storm which burst out over 
the length and breadth of the land a few months later still more 
effectually chilled his faith in the hold of good sense and the 
spirit of tolerance upon the minds of his countrymen. In the 
autumn of 1850, Great Britain was convulsed by the tempest of 
the Papal Aggression, which now looks none the less repulsive 
because we can see to what a degree it was ludicrous. Unfortu- 
nately Lord John Eussell lent himself to the prejudices and alarms 
which are so instantly roused in the minds of Englishmen and 
Scotchmen by anything that reminds them of the existence of 
the Eoman Catholic Church. He fanned the flame by a letter to 
the Bishop of Durham, which has as conspicuous a place among 
his acts and monuments as the letter from Edinburgh in 1845. 
In a damaging moment for his position at this time, as well as 
for his future political reputation, he brought in and passed a 
measure, as much to be blamed for the bigotry which inspired it, 
as for the futility of its provisions. The effect in the balanced 
state of parties was to give an irretrievable shake to his Adminis- 
tration, for his willing concessions to the bigotry of England and 
Scotland kindled the just resentment of Ireland. The Irish vote 
was indispensable to every Whig Ministry since the Eeform Bill, 
and this was now alienated from the Government of Lord John 
Eussell. Its fall could only be a matter of a few months, and 
was only delayed even for that short time by the difficulty of 

1 The Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851. 

2 To G. Hadfield, July 5, 1850. 



.Ex. '46.] the papal aggression. 363 

finding or devising a political combination that should take its 
place. 

The following extracts from his correspondence will show what 
Cobden was doing and thinking about between the winter of 1849 
and the winter of 1851 : — 

" Leeds, Dec. 18, 1849. {To Mrs. Cobden.) — I have received your 
despatches ; don't trouble yourself to send the proofs of the 
speeches. I am staying with Mrs. Carbutt, who has taken me 
from Mr. Schofield and Mr. Marshall. In fact, judging by the 
competition that there was for me, I am rather at a premium. The 
meeting this evening promises to be a very full and influential 
one. I wish it was over, for I am sorely perplexed at these 
demonstrations, for want of something fresh to say." 

"Leeds, Dec. 19. ( „ ) — We had a most thoroughly success- 
ful meeting last evening, and I spoke with tolerably good effect, 
but I am not sure that I shall not appear in the reports to have 
been rather rough with the landlords. At all events, I expect the 
Protectionists will raise a fierce howl at me." 

"Bradford, Dec. 21. — We had a very successful meeting here 
last evening, and I made a speech upon the Colonies, which I 
hope will be freely reported, for it is my opinion that it went 
pretty fully into the arguments, and is calculated to diffuse sound 
information upon the subject. The people here have resolved to 
republish it for cheap distribution." 

"April 18. {To James Mcllor.) — I observed in a paper the 
other day an account of the interference of our Admiral on the 
South American station for the purpose of demanding the settle- 
ment of certain claims made by creditors upon the Government 
of Venezuela. The account stated that the demand included the 
payment of money due for Loans. My object in writing is to 
ask whether you can ascertain for me through any house having 
relations there, whether the claim of the Stock Exchange creditors 
was included. I consider these debts to be totally different from 
those due to merchants for property in the form of merchandise 
sold to foreign states, or for goods seized unjustly in time of 
hostilities. Money lent through the Stock Exchange is generally 
advanced on such terms as to cover known risks of repudiation, 
etc. Besides, the money is advanced by foreigners even when the 
loan is nominally contracted in England, and the result of our 
Government becoming the collectors of such debts would be that 
we should be made the bumbailiffs of half a dozen nations besides 
our own. I am watching very jealously any step of the kind, 
because, if the principle be once adopted, it is not easy to see 
where we can stop. If we are to blockade the coast of a South 
American State, how can we refuse the creditors of the repudiat- 
ing State of Mississippi to blockade the port of New Orleans ? 



364 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

There will be obvious disgrace as well as injustice in dealing 
differently witb weak and with powerful States." 

"April 18. (To Mr. Bright) — Look in the money article of 
the Times to-day. The creditors of the Spanish Government are 
talking of petitioning Parliament to collect their debts. We must 
watch with jealousy the first attempt of this kind, and be prepared 
to agitate against it. Did you see the report in the papers that 
the Admiral on the South American station had demanded the 
debts due to English creditors of the Government of Venezuela ? 
I am anxious to know whether the Stock Exchange loans are in- 
cluded in the claims. Do you know anybody in the City who 
would inform us ? " 

"April 23. ( „ ) — It seems that there is — if we may 
judge of the article in to-day's Times — a prospect of still further 
delay about the Greek affair. Would it not be well to draw up a 
memorial to the Prime Minister, or else a petition to Parliament 
upon the subject ? The object, of course, should be to show the 
propriety of submitting the whole affair to the arbitration of dis- 
interested parties. It is just the case for arbitration. And the 
memorial should speak in terms of strong condemnation of a 
system of International Policy, which leaves the possibility of two 
nations being brought to such a state of hostility upon questions 
of such insignificant importance. Here is a dispute about a few 
thousand pounds or of personal insult, matters which might be 
equitably adjusted by two or three impartial individuals of aver- 
age intelligence and character, for the settlement of which a fleet 
of line-of-battle ships has been put in requisition, and the entire 
commerce of a friendly nation largely engaged in trade with our 
own people has been for months subjected to interruption. It 
should be stated that, apart from the outrage which such proceed- 
ings are calculated to inflict upon the feelings of humanity and 
justice, they must tend to bring diplomacy into disrepute. With- 
out offering any opinion on the merits of the question, you should 
pray that our Government should agree at once to submit the 
whole matter to the absolute decision of arbitrators mutually ap- 
pointed, and it might be added that this case affords a strong 
argument for entering upon a general system of arbitration trea- 
ties, by which such great inconveniences and dangers springing 
from such trivial causes may be averted for the future. It seems 
to me that this is an occasion on which you might frame a very 
practical memorial, and thus put the present system in the wrong 
in the eyes of even those men of business and politicians who do 
not go with you on principle." 

"July 2. (To Mrs. Cobden) — I am getting famously abused for 
my vote on Roebuck's Motion, but I never felt more satisfied than 
I do on the course I took. The accounts of poor Peel's health 



Mr. 46.] CORRESPONDENCE. 365 

are very unsatisfactory. I fear very much the worst. , It would 
be a great national calamity to lose him, and with him we should 
lose the best safeguard, if not the only one amongst statesmen, 
against a reaction at headquarters from Free Trade to Protec- 
tion." 

" July 4. ( „ ) — You will have seen the sad news of Sir 
E. Peel's death. I have not been able to think of anything since. 
Poor soul, his health had been sacrificed by his sufferings in the 
cause of Free Trade, and he may be said to have died a victim to 
the best act of his political life. I should not like to be in the 
position of those who by their unsparing hostility inflicted martyr- 
dom upon him." 

At the close of the Session, Cobden proceeded to the Peace 
Congress, which this year was held at Frankfort. 

" Cologne, Aug. 17. {To Mrs. Cobden) — My companions and I 
reached the station just in time to catch the train, and we reached 
Dover without further adventure. There we found that the wind 
had been blowing hard for a couple of days, so much so that the 
mail of the previous night from Calais was several hours behind 
its time. This was not a very agreeable prospect. Our boat was 
fixed to start for Ostend at eleven at night, and so, after taking 
some long walks about the town and neighborhood, we took a 
comfortable dinner at six. At nine o'clock the boat was obliged 
to leave the harbor, and cast anchor outside to save the tide. We 
went aboard with our luggage, and for upwards of two hours we 
were rocking at anchor in a heavy swell. I lay down on my back 
in the cabin (for there were no berths), which, as soon as the 
mail-train arrived at eleven with the passengers, was full of 
people, and I never had a more uncomfortable night. I lay in one 
posture till we had fairly cast anchor in the port of Ostend, with 
my bones and flesh aching as if I had been beaten. On opening 
my eyes and sitting up I found that my next neighbor was Count 

A , who had passed a terrible night, and who looked anything 

but the Adonis he strives to appear in the drawing-room. We 
started from Ostend at seven o'clock in the morning, and got to 
Cologne at nine at night, where we found ourselves with all the 
discomfort of reaching a strange town without knowing the lan- 
guage, and the little contretemps at the baggage-office upset my 
temper. The trials of my temper were increased when, on driving 
with an omnibus-load of fellow-passengers to the best hotel, we 
found there not a bed to be had, and so we had to hunt about the 
town till nearly ten o'clock, when we took refuge in a not first- 
rate hotel ; the dining-room, where we took a cup of tea, was filled 
with Germans, with beards on their chins and pipes in their 
mouths, playing cards and dominoes. However, a night's rest has 
restored my equanimity again. The crowd of travellers, particu- 



366 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850. 

larly English, exceeds all past experience. It is lucky for me that 
I have a comfortable reception awaiting me at Frankfort." 

" Frankfort, Aug. 23. ( „ ) — We yesterday held our first 
sitting of the Congress, in the same place where the German Par- 
liament assembled. It is a large church of a semicircular form, 
newly fitted up and decorated with flags, and capable of holding 
3000 persons. It was well filled during the day. The number of 
delegates and visitors to the Congress is about 500 or 600 ; but 
by far the largest portion are English. However, we have some 
good names from France. Cormenin(Conseiller d'Etat) and Emile 
de Girardin are both here, and spoke yesterday. Cormenin read 
a speech full of point, as everything is which comes from his pen. 
Amongst other ' spiritual ' things, he said, ' There is one thing 
which all will admit to be far more impossible than the putting 
an end to war, viz. to put an end to death, and why should we not 
use half as much exertion to escape war as to escape death ? ' 

" Strange to say, we had Haynau, the Austrian general, sitting 
in the meeting. He is staying at a hotel here. I took the oppor- 
tunity, in my speech, of alluding to the fact of having met him 
and Klapka at the two last peace meetings I had attended. He 
is a tall man, with a pair of white mustaches, which come down 
to his shoulders. His aspect is not prepossessing. I suspect 
there is some truth in the remark of a lady of Pesth, who ex- 
pressed an opinion that he was not always in his right senses. 
Upon the whole, I am very well satisfied with the meeting. We 
are gaining ground." 

"Nov. 9. ' (To G-. Comhe.) — I am afraid you overrate the impor- 
tance of our Manchester educational conference. 1 The difficulties 
in the way of success are not much diminished since I wrote to 
you to excuse my apparent apathy. I want standing-ground for 
the House of Commons. At present the Liberal party, the soul 
of which is Dissent, are torn to pieces by the question, and it is 
not easy to heal a religious feud. The Tories, whatever they may 
say to the contrary, are at heart opposed to the enlightenment of 
the people. They are naturally so from an instinct of self-preser- 
vation. They will therefore seek every pretence for opposing us. 
If I could say I represented the Eadical party or any other party 

1 Cobden had no sooner returned from the Peace Congress than he threw himself 
once more into the long and intricate struggle for National Education. He went 
to the most important centres of population, where he sought private interviews 
with bodies of men who were interested in the question, procuring a full and free 
discussion of vexed topics which were usually conducted with the heat and bitter- 
ness peculiar to sectarian quarrels. The Churchmen had moved a step forward ; 
they no longer claimed a monopoly of grants from the State : they now proposed 
that all the denominations should receive public- money for their religious teaching. 
It was a proposal, as Cobden said, by which everybody should be called upon to 
pay for the religious teaching of everybody else. This led to the conference at 
Manchester, January 22, 1851. 



Mt.46.1 CORRESPONDENCE. 367 

upon the question, I should have some standing-ground in the 
House. But the greatest of all causes has no locus standi in Par- 
liament. I thought I had given time to Mr. Baines and his dis- 
senting friends to get cool upon the subject. But they appear to 
be as hot as ever. However, I shall now go straight at the mark, 
and shall neither give nor take quarter. I have made up my 
mind to go for the Massachusetts system as nearly as we can get 
it. 1 You would be puzzled at my objecting to the word ' secular.' 
If I had seen, before I spoke upon the subject, that the word 
occurred again in the body of the resolution, I should not have 
taken the objection ; for, after all, the words of Shakespeare, 
'What 's in a name ?' apply very much to this case. We all mean 
the same thing, to teach the people something necessary for their 
well-being, which the ministers of religion do not teach them. I per- 
ceive a difficulty in arguing the case if we profess to exclude the 
Bible from all schools. I would rather take the Massachusetts 
ground, and say that no book shall be admitted into the schools 
which favors the doctrines of any particular religious sect; but this 
in a Protestant country could hardly be said to include the Bible. 
In the Lancashire public school plan, it was proposed to have 
extracts from the Scriptures only, and this was the best mode of 
meeting the difficulty in a county where there are so many Roman 
Catholics. But this is very different from the case of Butland, 
where there is not probably a Catholic, and certainly more than 
half the parishes of England and Wales are in the same predica- 
ment. Still I do not shut my eyes to the fact that we shall be 
accused of teaching religion, just as certainly as we should be 
charged with irreligion if we excluded the Bible. However, there 
is the Massachusetts plan and its effects to fall back upon, and 
we must trust to time and discussion to put matters right in this 
country." 

"Manchester, Thursday, Nov. 22. (To Mr. Bright) — I have 
come over here to attend a private meeting of the School Com- 
mittee, and shall go to Birmingham to-morrow to pass a day or 
two with Sturge, and see Chance's glass-works, and Fox and Hen- 
derson's establishment. 1 hope you will come to Birmingham and 
attend both the Freehold Land Society and the Peace Meeting, if 
for no other purpose, to let the fools and knaves who are raising 
this Guy Fawkes outcry, know that there are people in the coun- 
try who are thinking of something more important than the 
Queen's spiritual supremacy. 

1 That is to say education provided from local rates, free, compulsory, and secu- 
lar in the sense of excluding books that teach the doctrine of any particular sect. 
The plan which Cobden favored was after twenty years of lost time practically 
accepted, with the important exception that elementary instruction is not yet 
gratuitous. 



368 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

"I should like you to speak against the consecrating of the 
banners, and, if you found your audience all right, it would be a 
glorious thing to be able to rebuke the Protestant bigots, and say 
a word for the religious rights of a fourth of the population of the 
Empire. What a disgusting display is this Cockney No-Popery 
cry, headed by Johnny Kussell, who bids fair to close his political 
career in the character of a religious persecutor. The end of it 
will be a reaction in favor of the Roman Catholics, "and increased 
strength to their priesthood, which I don't wish to see. In the 
mean time the old sore is opened in Ireland, and there is a new 
lease for Guy Fawkes, and the 'Immortal memory,' — and my 
cynical brother will be confirmed in his doctrine that we are, 
after all, not progressive creatures, but only revolving in a circle 
of instincts. Verily we have not made great strides during the 
last two centuries in religious toleration." 

" Feb. 15. {To J. Sturge) — Is there no way of bringing out a 
declaration from the friends of religious equality in Birmingham 
against the Whig Bill for inflicting pains and penalties upon the 
Roman Catholics ? Birmingham was the first to give a check to 
the public meetings in the North. Could it not have the honor 
of taking the lead in promulgating a sound declaration of opinion 
against all interference by the legislature in the religious concerns 
of the people ? I should like to see a declaration put forth repu- 
diating the rights of the Parliament to encourage by temporal 
rewards, or to discourage by temporal penalties, the progress of 
any religious opinions. Surely the mass of the people of Birming- 
ham are favorable to this principle ; it is in fact the principle of 
religious liberty which all parties profess to advocate, but so few 
are prepared to practise. Suppose you were to call a few friends 
together and take their advice as to whether anything can be 
done. We are going back rapidly in the House, and unless 
helped from without, our case is hopeless." 

" London, Feb. 19. ( „ ) — I expect that this No-Popery cry 
will prove fatal to the Ministry. It is generally thought that the 
Government will be in a minority on some important question, 
probably the income-tax, in less than a fortnight. The Irish 
Catholic members are determined to do everything to turn out 
Lord John. Indeed, Ireland is in such a state of exasperation 
with the Whigs, that no Irish member having a Catholic constit- 
uency will have a chance of being elected again unless he votes 
through thick and thin to upset the Ministry. We may have a 
dissolution this spring, and if either party should be wicked 
enough to raise the No-Popery cry, Heaven only knows what the 
result may be.- One thing is certain; the Irish Catholics will 
send none but Catholics, and they will hold the balance of power 
in the House, and if they were sixty Quakers instead of Irish 



Mi. 47.] CORRESPONDENCE. 369 

Catholics, they would dictate terms to any Ministry. This unset- 
tled state of parties makes it more important that we should raise 
the banner of religious equality." 

" Feb. 25. (To J. Partes.) — The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill is the 
real cause of the upset of the Whig coach, or rather of the coach- 
man leaping from the box to escape an upset. 1 This measure 
cannot be persevered in by any Government so far as Ireland is 
concerned, for no Government can exist, if fifty Irish members are 
pledged to vote against them under all circumstances when they 
are in danger. A dissolution would give at least fifty members to 
do that work, and they would be all watched as they are now by 
their constituents. Probably a bishop or two would be sent up to 
town to keep them in the true fold, and see that they did not fall 
into the hands of the Treasury shepherd. 

" This mode of fighting by means of adverse votes in the House 
is far more difficult to deal with by our aristocratic rulers than 
was the plan of O'Connell when he called his monster meetings. 
They could be stopped by a proclamation, or put down by soldiers, 
but neither of these modes will avail in the House. What folly 
it was to give a real representation to the Irish counties, and to 
think of still maintaining the old persecuting ascendency. 2 

* I do not see how Lord John and the Whigs are to recover from 
the false position into which they have been flung by his letter 
and his speech. They have traded for the last fifteen years as a 
political party upon Irish questions ; but now that capital is ex- 
hausted. Even if they withdrew their measure, which is hardly 
possible, it would not restore them to the confidence of the Irish. 
They are in a regular mess, and I do not see any way out of it for 
them. It is understood that Graham refuses to join the Whigs. 
He is against the Papal outcry, and walked out of the House on 
the first reading. 

" Now all this is a good ground for your getting up a demon- 
stration against the Bill. It must be withdrawn, whether you 

1 Ministers were defeated on a private member's Bill to lower the county fran- 
chise to 101., which they opposed. On Feb. 22, it was announced that Lord John 
Russell had resigned. Lord Stanley was sent for, but gave up the task. The 
Peelites were the difficulty. Without them there could be no strong Government. 
They declined to join Lord Stanley from differences as to commercial policy, and 
their vigorous disapproval of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill prevented them from 
joining Lord John Russell. After a short interregnum Lord John and his colleagues 
returned to office. 

2 Cobden is here at the very heart of the deplorable tale of English mismanage- 
ment of Ireland since Catholic Emancipation. We invited the Irish to send repre- 
sentatives of their wishes and views to Parliament, but, until to a small extent in 
our own day, their views and wishes counted for nothing in the House of Commons. 
Of course the spirit of the Titles Bill was in miniature the same as the spirit of the 
Penal Code. Nothing could have been more nicely calculated to deepen Irish dis- 
like for English supremacy, and Irish contempt for English professions of equality 
and tolerance. 

24 



370 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

take a part or not. But it is very desirable that the English people 
should be known by the Irish to have taken a part in ridding 
them of this insulting measure." 

"March 13. (To Mr. W. B. Greg)— .... I doubt the 
policy of interfering in the Caffre business until we have more 
authentic news ; the proper cure for these recurring wars is to let 
the colonists bear the brunt of them. This must be done by first 
giving them the powers of self-government, and then throwing on 
them the responsibility of their own policy. They would then be 
very careful to treat the neighboring savages with justice. At 
present it is the interest of the colonists to provoke the natives 
into war, because it leads to a most profitable expenditure of 
British money." 

" March 15. (To Mr. E. Potter) — .... As for politics, no- 
body can foresee for a week what will happen. Parties were a 
good deal confused before, thanks to Corn ; but now the Catholic 
element has made confusion worse confounded. Of this be as- 
sured, all the embarrassments in the House, at Court, and in the 
Cabinet, have sprung out of the Papal question. It may suit the 
Whigs to abuse the Radicals, or make the Manchester school their 
whipping boys ; but it is Lord Johnny's Durham letter and his 
Bill that are at the bottom of all the mischief. For the last fifteen 
years, ever since 1835, the Whigs, when in power, have depended 
for their political existence upon the votes of the Irish members. 
If that support had been at any time withdrawn in consequence 
of a Durham letter, they must have gone out of office. And they 
must go out now. The only thing that keeps them in, is the im- 
possibility of finding anybody to take their places. In fact, it is 
difficult to see who is to govern. Any Government that perse- 
veres in the anti-Papal policy will be opposed by the Irish mem- 
bers on every subject, and if an Administration were to come in 
to do nothing against the Pope, they would, I suppose, be turned 
out by the English. So that we are in a rather considerable fix. 

" I will back the Irish to win, though they have long odds against 
them, because they have right and justice on their side. In fact, 
we are exhibiting ourselves in this year of the Exhibition as the 
most intolerant people on earth. Europe cries shame on us, and 
America laughs at us. Our course is that of the dog in the manger. 
We will not come to an agreement with the Pope, as the Emperor 
of Eussia does, by which he has a voice in the appointment of the 
Roman Catholic bishops in his Polish provinces (his Ireland), nor 
will we allow the Irish to manage their own spiritual affairs 
without our aid or intervention, as is done in the United States. 
Was ever anything so absurdly unjust ? Well may our statesmen, 
such as Graham, Aberdeen, and so on, decline to take office to 
carry out such a system. I will venture to say that there is not a 



Mt. 47.] CORRESPONDENCE. 371 

leading statesman in any country of Europe or America, who would 
for a moment take upon himself the responsibility of treating 
seven millions of Catholics as we are doing. 

" As respects the prospects of Free Trade they are safe enough 
if we can have an appeal to the country upon that question ' pure 
and simple.' But if the Protectionists can throw in the religious 
cry, Heaven only knows what may be the consequence. All I can 
say is, that, if the people are determined to indulge their bigotry 
even at the cost of a tax on their bread, it is their affair and not 
mine. I shall as resolutely oppose Protestant monopoly as Pro- 
tectionist monopoly. 

" I am glad to hear such good accounts of you. I would not 
advise you to come to Parliament, although I should like to have 
you on the same bench with me. For my part I am so disgusted 
with these theological squabbles that I should be delighted if I 
could bolt out of the political ring. But there is no such luck." 

" Dunford, April 22, (To Mrs. Golden) — ! left Chichester 
with Elcome yesterday, in the midst of rain, and it has been rain- 
ing ever since. I can hardly see the trees on the side of the hill 
leading up to "Walker's, and the Downs are quite lost in the thick 
mist. I am. of course a prisoner, which is very disagreeable. 
Yesterday, whilst at Chichester, I was very extravagant in the 
purchase of a great number of- roses in pots, which I expect to 
arrive to-day, and I shall have them taken out of the pots and 
placed in the garden. They are all of the autumn perpetual kinds. 
I intend to have a bed of them on the rising ground just at the end 
of the house, not coming forward too far to interfere with the view 
of the Downs. I shall also have a bed in the front of the house. 
We shall shine in roses. The hollies and evergreens are still 
looking rather sorry and downcast. But, probably, with dry warm 
weather we shall soon see an improvement. The temperature is 
mild, and the wheats are looking vigorous. The nightingale and 
cuckoo are already heard in the hanger, and the foliage of the 
woods is assuming a lively hue. I long for the time when we 
can be here with the children in the autumn. You will enjoy it 
beyond measure." 

"May 21. (To Mr. W. B. Greg) —What the Whig Govern- 
ment intend to do I know not. 1 But of this I am quite sure, 
that if they do not intend to bring forward a measure calculated 
to excite some enthusiasm in the country, they had better leave 
us as we are, to fight the battle upon the Free Trade question. 
In my opinion, no measure will rouse the middle class, or have 
the slightest chance of meeting any response from the county 
constituency, unless the ballot form a part of it ; and I fear that 

1 This refers to the Ministerial proposals, which were in various shapes before 
the public from this time until the Crimean War, for parliamentary reform. 



372 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

Lord John will flinch from that. The present system is worn out. 
There must be a new departure taken, with a better crew on 
board the Government vessel, and an avowed and definite desti- 
nation in view. Until this fresh start be taken, we shall be in a 
transition state, and even when we get a reformed Parliament and 
an enlarged constituency, it may take a long time to enable the 
people to make up their minds what they shall do with their power. 
I am not sanguine (since the Papal outburst) of living to see the 
political millennium which some people expect from another Ee- 
form Bill. But I repeat, the present system is come to a dead- 
dock, and whether for good or evil, the people must be called in 
to give a preponderance to one or the other political scale." 

This year the first Great Exhibition was opened. I cannot 
find that Cobden was in any way responsible for the excessive 
importance which was so irrationally attributed to this once fa- 
mous enterprise. He did not believe that it marked the arrival 
of a pacific transformation, but he thought that he might take 
people sufficiently at their word to propose to the House of Com- 
mons that the Foreign Minister should be recommended to open 
negotiations with France for a reduction of armaments. He stip- 
ulated for nothing specific ; he only urged that an effort in this 
direction should be made at a time which seemed in every respect 
so incomparably propitious. Lord Palmerston hastened with vir- 
tuous alacrity to give a cordial adhesion to the general tendency 
of his honorable friend's views, but would prefer to be left with 
his hands free. Other members followed, showing in bright colors 
what a noble spectacle we should set to mankind, if a solemn res- 
olution of Parliament should commission the Foreign Secretary 
to say openly to France, " We desire peace, and ask you to aid us 
in that great work." All this was the fashionable mood of the 
hour, just as declamatory panic was the mood of the hour after. 
There was no hypocrisy in either case. The instability arose 
from the omission of influential statesmen to keep in their 
minds a systematic survey of the facts of our national position 
in relation to Foreign Powers. There was no real basis con- 
sistently present to the legislature or the public, to justify their 
occasional fits of pacific profession. Cobden had no illusions as 
to the" real progress of his opinions, but the fewer his illusions, 
the more strongly he felt boujid to persevere. 

It was not to he expected that Cobden would be able to speak 
so freely as he was accustomed to do on military and naval mat- 
ters, without touching that susceptibility which is common to 
all experts, and to experts in these two great services more even 
than in others. He often received insolent letters from officers 
who resented public discussions as private affronts. In 1850 a 
certain captain, whose operations in Borneo Cobden had spoken 



Ml. 47.] CORRESPONDENCE. 373 

of as being of the nature of piracy, sent him a challenge to fight a 
duel. Cobden replied that if the writer repeated the offence, he 
would hand him over to the police. Vivacious journalists in- 
stantly taxed him with inconsistency. If he was for non-resist- 
ance, universal disarmament, and peace-at-any-price, with what 
decency could he talk of an appeal to the police ? This folly was 
an excellent specimen of the criticism which Cobden was accus- 
tomed to receive at the hands of more responsible personages than 
the humorists of the press. In the same year an Admiral in high 
position entered into a hostile correspondence with him on the 
ground of something which Mr. Bright was wrongly reported to 
have said. Cobden replied that his correspondent must expect 
like all public men to have his conduct freely canvassed, and that 
if he had so little control over his temper that he must needs 
challenge one member of the legislature to mortal combat because 
another member was reported to have made a mistake of a single 
word in a speech of an hour's length, or because a reporter's pen 
may have slipped at a critical moment, then the Admiral had 
mistaken his vocation, and ought to retire from the public service. 
Cobden's reply was too direct to be courteous, but the provocation 
was sharp. 

We may now proceed to correspondence of a graver kind, prin- 
cipally with Mr. Bright : — 

" Sept. 29. (To Mr. Bright.) — I have been looking out for signs 
and omens of the political future, but cannot say I see any indi- 
cations of a breeze in the direction of Eeform. People are too 
well-to-do in the world to agitate for anything. Did you ever 
know or read of any movement for organic change when wheat 
was under 40s., to say nothing of cotton at 4d. ? I am willing to 
do my share in the House or out of it, as an individual ; but when 
you suggest a Conference under the auspices of Wilson and our- 
selves in Manchester, it is well to consider whether we may not 
be under the risk of deceiving ourselves or misleading others as 
to the meaning of such a step. 

" If we move together at the head of an organization, it will be 
assumed that we are go"ing to bring the League following with us.' 
This will be a delusion practised upon people at a distance, and 
probably upon ourselves ; for depend on it, we shall not carry 
with us those who co-operated with us in that struggle. Since I 
have been down here [Midhurst], I have been amusing myself 
under an old yew-tree by looking over several bushels of old let- 
ters which I received during the League agitation. The names 
of all those who did the work of that seven years' struggle are 
fresh in my memory. Do not deceive yourself ; the same men will 
not fight the tattle of Parliamentary Reform. If we go into the 
conflict, we must seek for recruits from amongst another class. 



374 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

Let this be understood beforehand by ourselves and the public ; 
otherwise we do harm to all parties, by misleading the country 
and ourselves. 

" But is it not a proof that the country is not ripe for a really 
great measure of Eeform, that there is no spontaneous movement 
for it ? In all great movements, new men spring up. They are 
the vouchers for the reality of the public interest in ( the Eeform 
in question. When the Catholics were ready to free themselves, 
it was so. When the days of the Corn Law were numbered, it 
was so. But where are the men who now ask you and me and 
Wilson to put ourselves at their head, to effect another Eeform of 
Parliament ? . . . . Where are the influential local men who are 
guaranties for the earnestness of any considerable body of reliable 
partisans throughout the kingdom ? We are bound to look about 
us for some security of the kind. Nay, as practical men of this 
world, we should be guilty of a wanton waste of the little moral 
influence we possess, if we did not take a calm survey of the 
prospects of support before plunging into a fresh agitation. Lo- 
pez may be pitied, or blamed, according as people believe him to 
have had the opportunity of knowing beforehand the opinion of 
the Cuban population ; but nobody will ever excuse you or me 
for miscalculating the force of public opinion upon any ques- 
tion. 

" We can learn what the people want, if we take the trouble 
and the time to inquire. I confess that, before I embark in any 
formal proceeding, I should like to have better evidence than I 
have hitherto had of the determination of the public to carry a 
thorough measure of Eeform. To judge by appearances, nobody 
cares about it. There may be a change. When the breeze stirs, 
I think I shall perceive the ripple on the water as soon as any- 
body. 

" I am not, as you suppose, desponding about political progress. 
I have faith in the onward tendency of our species. Not even 
the red cloaks of the Manchester aldermen can bring me to my 
cynical brother's doctrine, that we move in a circle of instincts, 
and return after a given cycle to the old starting-place (I admit, 
however, that the cloaks are a great triumph for his theory). If 
we are not now moving onward with great velocity, it is because 
we made a great rush for the goal of Free Trade, and the country 
has hardly yet recovered its breath sufficiently for a fresh start. 
But there is no danger of our standing still or becoming stagnant. 
The repeal of the Corn Law was a severe dose of alterative medi- 
cine, which is working by a self-acting process a gradual change 
in the body politic. It may take time, but the effects are sure. 
I am living in a part of the country where I can witness its 
operations." 



^h?. 47.] CORRESPONDENCE. 375 

" Midhurst, Oct. 1. (To Mr. Bright) — Your letter of the 25th 
has only to-day come to hand, without any explanation of the 
cause of the delay. 

" I observe that you are hopeful of aid from Baines and Co. 
Have you seen the Mercury of Saturday ? It is lukewarm, or less 
tepid even than that ! Gives the go-bye to the ballot, opposes 
our honest redistribution because it would give an eleventh of the 
representation to London, and objects to household suffrage with 
the old and perverse plea that it would give a preponderance to 
the agricultural districts. 

"By the way, with reference to what you heard from 

about the register. I may here say that my mind is made up not 
to stand again for the West Eiding. I shall take an early oppor- 
tunity of announcing my intention. Apart from the Free Trade 
question, I don't see what principle I could represent in the West 
Eiding. If Baines be a representative of the opinions of the 
iufluential Liberals of the Eiding, we are as wide as the poles 
asunder upon the vital questions of the day. I will sit for no 
place where the constituency will not back me in an active oppo- 
sition to all invasions of the principle of religious equality. That 
question stands in my judgment before that of commercial freedom. 
And seeing how the majority of dissenting politicians have vio- 
lated the rights of conscience by supporting the Ecclesiastical 
Titles Bill, I feel by no means certain that I shall find any con- 
stituency which will return me on my own terms, about which, 
however, I feel no nervous anxiety. I see nothing but party 
animosity and political tergiversation in prospect in the House 
for some years to come. 

" I agree with you to the letter in all you say about Ireland. 
There is no doubt that the land question (coupled with the Church 
Establishment) is at the root of the evil. And here let me say 
that I go heartily with you in the determination to attack the 
land monopoly root and branch both here and in Ireland and 
Scotland. There is an article in this day's Freeholder (' Large and 
Small Farms ') which will show you that our minds are running 
in the same direction. Wherever the deductions of political 
economy lead, I am prepared to follow. By the way, have you 
had time to read Bastiat's partly posthumous volume, ' Les Har- 
monies Economiques ' ? If not, do so ; it will require a studious 
perusal, but will repay it. He has breathed a soul into the dry 
bones of political economy, and has vindicated his favorite science 
from the charge of inhumanity with all the fervor of a religious 
devotee. 

" But to return to the Land customs of this country. We have 
made no progress upon the subject of primogeniture during the 
last twentv } Public opinion is either indifferent or favor- 



376 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

able to the system of large properties kept together by entail. If 
you want a proof, see how every successful trader buys an estate, 
and tries to perpetuate his name in connection with ' that ilk ' by 
creating an eldest son. It is probably the only question on which, 
if an attempt were made to abolish the present system, France 
could be again roused to revolution ; and yet we are in England 
actually hugging our feudal fetters ! But we are a Chinese people. 
What a lucky thing it is that our grandmothers did not deform 
their feet a la Ghinoise ! if so, we should have had a terrible 
battle to emancipate women's toes. But, however unprepared the 
public may be for our views on the land question, I am ready to 
incur any obloquy in the cause of economical truth. And it is, 
I confess, on this class of questions, rather than on plans of 
organic reform, that I feel disposed to act the part of a pioneer. 

" The extension of the suffrage must and will come, but it chills 
my enthusiasm upon the subject when I see so much popular 
error and prejudice prevailing upon such questions as the Colonies, 
religious freedom, and the land customs of this country. I do 
not mean to say that these thoughts make me for an instant falter 
in my advocacy of the extension of the franchise, but they make 
me doubt whether I may not be better employed in trying to 
diffuse sound practical views, than in fighting for forms or theories 
of government which do not necessarily involve the fate of 
practical legislation at all. The greatest obstacle to any improve- 
ment or change in John Bull's sentiments just now is the egregious 
vanity of the beast. He has been so plastered with flattery, for 
which he seems to have an insatiable appetite, that he has become 
an impervious mass of self-esteem. Nothing is so difficult as to 
alter the policy of individuals or nations who allow themselves 
to be persuaded that they are the ' envy of surrounding nations 
and the admiration of the world.' Time and adversity can alone 
operate in such cases." 

" October 29. (To Mr. Bright) — I thought I had so repeatedly 
explained myself upon the Beform movement, that it must pre- 
vent any misunderstanding between us as to my meaning. I do 
not advocate our doing nothing. I am prepared to do something. 
We must all do our best. But the question, and the only ques- 
tion which I was discussing, is whether we shall call a Conference 
in Manchester. That means in the eyes of the public that the 
men who call the Conference, and who put themselves at its 
head, are prepared to organize an agitation. Have we duly 
reckoned the chances of making Manchester the headquarters of 
a successful Beform movement ? I doubt its success. A Confer- 
ence would be only justifiable, in my opinion, after we had been 
requested to call one by the reformers of the several localities from 
which we should invite delegates. I have seen no symptoms of 



JSt.47.] KOSSUTH. 377 

any such movement anywhere. I wish you to draw the distinction 
in your mind between our individual efforts in support of some 
such broad plan as Hume's, which I am prepared to make, and our 
calling a Conference in Manchester. Supposing the latter to be 
decided on, what will you do with Walmsley's great-little go ? Will 
you join it and merge in it, or will you set up a distinct organiza- 
tion ? If the former, you will avoid all responsibility ; but you will 
perhaps give an apparent force to a society which has little real 
strength, and thus tend to foster the delusion that more is doing 
than is really being done by it. If the latter, you incur a great 
responsibility ; you can only be justified in superseding his society, 
by the certainty of establishing something better. In any case, 
we shall for a time have two suns in the firmament trying to 
outshine each other. Unless we make a very grand flare-up 
indeed, we shall be charged with impotent jealousy in trying to 
injure Walmsley's concern, without being able to set up anything 
better. Now, none of these difficulties arise if we act individually, 
instead of calling a Manchester Conference. 

" I have thus again explained my views. We may differ, but 
cannot misunderstand each other. Having had my say, I by no 
means wish it to be supposed that I would refuse to join you and 
Wilson in any such demonstration, if you decide to hold one. I 
shall be in the north before the middle of next month, and will 
come and pass a night at your house. I am, however, under an 
engagement to be present at a Freehold Land Society's Conference 
in London, on the 25th of November (Monday). 

" I don't know how soon I may be with you. The Leeds people 
have invited Kossuth to attend a meeting. 1 I don't know whether 
he will go. I have advised him from the first to be very chary in 
accepting invitations ; but, if he should go there, I shall certainly 
be present. By the way, you will be curious to hear what sort of 
impression he made on me. Amiability, earnestness, and dis- 
interestedness were the most speaking characteristics of the man. 
Speaking phrenologically, I should say he wants firmness ; and the 
head is very small in the animal organs behind the ear. Alto- 
gether he did not impress me with a sense of his power to the 
extent which I had looked for. And yet he must possess it, for 
otherwise he could not have acquired an ascendency over the 
aristocratic party in his country, where, judging by the specimens 
I have seen amongst the refugees, he was brought into competition 
with men of no ordinary stamp. The secret of his influence lies, 
I suspect, in his eloquence. His speech at Winchester, delivered 
within forty- eight hours of his arrival in England, in a language 
with which he could have had but little practical acquaintance, 

1 Kossuth landed at Southampton, from Turkey, on October 23. 



378 LTFE OF COBDEN. [1851, 

was the most extraordinary exploit I ever witnessed. I have no 
doubt that with forty-eight hours' preparation, and a supply of 
the necessary materials, he would make as good a financial state- 
ment in the House as any public man amongst us. The speech 
he delivered was suggested by myself, and was spoken without 
preparation. 

" I have not seen a report of the proceedings at the Southamp- 
ton banquet, but am anxious to see how Lawrence, the American 
Minister, will get through his part of sympathizing with the Aus- 
trian rebel, who deposed the house of Hapsburg in Hungary, and 
was a few weeks ago hung in effigy by command of the Austrian 
Government. How will these diplomatists, with their starched 
etiquette, ever survive such a violation of their conventional rules ? 
Then how can the Austrian Minister remain at Washington after 
the President has invited Kossuth to be his guest, and given orders 
for his reception with military honors ? Assuredly, these Demo- 
crats are destined to turn the diplomatic world upside down. 

" You are quite right in saying that Palmerston wants to make 
political capital out of Kossuth, His tools have succeeded in 
getting a vote of thanks for him in Southampton, where the good 
folks have been in far too great a bustle to think of what they are 
doing. But you will have observed that Kossuth himself avoids 
saying anything in praise of Palmerston." 

" Nov. 4. {To F. W. Cobden) — It seems Kossuth will not go 
to Yorkshire, and I do not see the necessity of my attending the 
Manchester banquet. The Times has had a slap in the face which 
it will not soon forget or forgive. It has been fairly cowed by the 
universal execration it has brought upon itself. Yet what an ab- 
surd position we are in. So completely dictated to and domineered 
over by one newspaper, that it requires a periodical revolt of the 
whole people to keep the despot in tolerable order ! If we had, as 
we might have, a dozen daily morning papers, of all prices, repre- 
senting all opinions, and holding each other in check, there would 
be no necessity for these public meetings to protest against the 
misrepresentation of the press ; which, so far as I take a part in 
them, are not the most safe or convenient, for one is always in 
danger of being identified with those who give vent in the excite- 
ment of the moment to very unsound and bellicose sentiments." 

"November 7. {To Mr. Bright) — As respects Sturge's plan of 
universal suffrage, although I am convinced we shall come to it 
some day, I do not think it would have so much support from the 
electoral body as household suffrage. And we are too apt to for- 
get that the mass of the people, however enthusiastic in favor of 
universal suffrage, have not the power of carrying that or any 
other measure, excepting with the aid of the middle class. 

" Again, Sturge loses sight of the inequality of representation, 



Mir. 47.] KOSSUTH. 379 

which, (even if we would risk the ballot) renders it quite impossi- 
ble that we should make the Eeform Bill a simple question of 
household or manhood suffrage. After all (you will say I am 
upon my hobby again) I look to the forty-shilling freehold move- 
ment as the surest guaranty of our being able to break down the 
power of the aristocracy without an appeal to violence. A county 
or two quietly rescued from the landlords by this process will, 
when announced, do more to strike dismay into the camp of feu- 
dalism and inspire the people with the assurance of victory, than 
anything we could do. As respects the Whig programme, if the 
ballot be left out, I will not be a party to the scheme, and I feel 
quite sure that it will be left out." 

" Midhurst, Nov. 6. ( „ ) — I guarded myself as carefully as 
ever I did in my life from being seduced into an unsound position 
at Winchester, and it is only a proof of the terrible powers of per- 
version possessed by the Times that you have been influenced by 
its comments on my speech. The word ' Stop ' as applied to Eus- 
sia was used first by Kossuth in his speech. He said he wished 
us only to say, Stop. In my remarks I alluded to the unsound 
state of public opinion here, and our own violations of the princi- 
ple of non-intervention in our foreign policy. I also referred to 
the fact that when the Eussians invaded Hungary, so much were 
we under the influence of those unsound opinions, that the tone 
of some of our leading papers was adverse to the Hungarian cause. 
I said, then let public opinion in England be set right by such 
speeches as we had just heard, and let us come into court with 
clean hands, by acting upon the principle of non-intervention our- 
selves, and let America join us in the same course (though she has 
rather given symptoms of following our bad example), and then 
the word ' Stop ' addressed to Eussia would have the force of a 
thousand cannons. 

" I had, of course, a good deal of private talk with him, all in 
the same strain, and distinctly told him that I had no other hope 
for him but in the general adoption of the principle of non-inter- 
vention as a public opinion of the civilized world. And certainly 
he has done his part nobly in putting forward that principle in its 
fairest aspect. He tells us he does not want help, but he wishes 
us to secure him fair play. We say we wish fair play to him and 
all others struggling for what they hold to be their rights. Is not 
such a man, then, to have our sympathies ? Are we to let him be 
slaughtered here by the Times, and stand silently by whilst worse 
than Turks are assassinating him morally ? No ; you are not the 
man to say so. But then you are afraid that others will push our 
doctrines to the point of physical force. Even if they do, that is 
no reason why we should cease to give moral power its only 
chance, by boldly proclaiming the right and justice of the Hunga- 



380 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

rians to settle their own domestic affairs. Now I am satisfied 
that if public opinion in England can be shown to be unmistakably 
against Eussian invasion of Hungary, the Eussian Government 
would no more think of risking a collision with the two most 
powerful maritime states, than Tuscany or Sardinia would; for 
she is, if possible, more at the mercy of those powers. Therefore, 
to avoid the possibility of war, let us give the fullest development 
and expression to sound public opinion. 

" My own opinion is that we are on the eve of a revolution in 
the diplomatic world ; that the old regime of mystification and 
innuendo and intrigue cannot survive the growth of the demo- 
cratic principle ; that diplomacy must be a public and responsible 
organization ; and nobly again has Kossuth assailed this strong- 
hold of the hierarchical spirit. What could be better than when he 
said, ' Diplomacy tells us that the dinner is prepared and eaten, 
and we (the people) have nothing to do but to digest the conse- 
quences ' ? Then, again, his attacks upon the loaning system are 
quite in our spirit. In fact he comes here preaching the main 
principles enunciated at our Peace Congress, but preaching them 
better even in a foreign tongue than I could do in my own lan- 
guage ; and surely such a man ought not to be slighted, although 
some of his admirers talk a little gunpowder. 

" But the fact is that upon the whole the public addresses and 
speeches are singularly judicious, with the exception of the London 
Working Men's address, with which, of course, the working men 
had nothing to do. I join you heartily in wishing to guard us 
against being for a moment thought to be the advocates of war or 
armed intervention, and am equally convinced with yourself that 
we have nothing to hope from Palmerston and Co. One of my 
reasons for hoping much from Kossuth's agitation here and in 
America is that it will tend to unveil Foreign Ministers and put 
Foreign Offices in order. 

" By the way, with reference to your difficulties about speaking, 
I should expect that Kossuth will prefer that nobody speaks but 
himself. After having such a rule adopted by the London Work- 
ing Men's Committee, it would be invidious to depart from it in 
Manchester. I know it is his wish that nobody speaks in his 
presence unless he is the guest of the chairman, as at Southampton. 
So, if you like to suggest to the committee that Kossuth should 
receive addresses and make a reply, and that nobody else should 
speak, I know that would be most agreeable to him." 

" Dunford, Nov. 13. ( „ ) — I have only time for a few words 
to save the post after reading your speech, to say how greatly I 
admire your sentiments and approve the line of argument you 
took at the great Kossuth meeting. I can fully appreciate the 
difficulties of a peace man standing before such a meeting, full of 



M?A7.-] KOSSUTH. 381 

the most generous indignation at the oppressors of a people so 
nobly represented by the great Magyar. If you could have moved 
there and then a declaration of war against Eussia and Austria, it 
would have perhaps been the resolution which would have most 
perfectly embodied the feelings of three fourths of those present. 
But your remarks will bear the test of time and reflection, which 
I should think would hardly be the case with the rev. gentlemen 
who fell foul of your peace principles. By the way, if I rightly 
understand what Dr. Vaughan said, he took credit for Palmerston 
for having prevented the Sultan from surrendering Kossuth by 
promising him material help. Now, you will find on referring to 
Palmerston's speech on Eoebuck's Greek Debate, that, in speaking 
of the entry of our fleet into the Dardanelles, he himself informed 
us that the Emperor of Eussia withdrew his demand for the ex- 
tradition of the Eefugees on the arrival of the Sultan's envoy 
remonstrating against the demand, and before any intelligence had 
reached Petersburgh of the views of the English Government. But I 
remember at the time making the calculation, and finding that 
the newspapers of London and Paris, giving one unanimous ex- 
pression from all parties and every shade of opinion, of indignation 
at the attempt of the northern powers to violate the law of nations 
in the persons of Kossuth and his companions, reached Peters- 
burgh at the same time with the Turkish envoy, and I felt con- 
vinced, and I said as much in the House afterwards, that it was 
that expression of opinion from Western Europe scared the despots 
instantly from their prey. And you are quite right ; it is opinion 
and opinion only that is wanting to establish the principle of non- 
intervention as a law of nations, as absolutely as the political 
refugee in a third and neutral country is protected now by the law 
of nations. But these people who bawl for soldiers and sailors to 
settle these matters, forget that we have a great deal to do to settle 
opinion amongst ourselves before we go to war to make others 
conform to a principle which we have not yet agreed upon. Was 
public opinion in England unanimously expressed against Eussian 
intervention in 1849 ? Turn back to the columns of the Times 
and Manchester Guardian for an answer 

" I know that Kossuth was most indignant on reading the blue- 
books (at Kutayah) giving the correspondence about the Hunga- 
rian struggle, for Pulsky told me at the time that K. had 
discovered to his surprise that the whole moral force of our diplo- 
macy at Vienna was employed against him, and that Palmerston 
at the close of the struggle wrote to congratulate the Austrian 
government upon the termination of the war " 

"Nov. 16. (To Mr. Ashworth) — Kossuth is most certainly a 
phenomenon ; not only is he the first orator of the age, but he 
combines the rare attributes of a first-rate administrator, high 



382 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

moral qualities, and unswerving courage. This is more than can 
be said of Demosthenes or Cicero. I am glad to see by your let- 
ter that you have participated in the pleasure of listening to him. 
I confess I felt intensely interested in the success of his visit, after 
the base and brutal attempt of the Times to destroy his character, 
before even he had alighted on our shores. The generous welcome 
given to him is I believe not altogether undue to the dastardly 
attacks made on him by that paper, which has received a lesson 
not easily to be forgotten or forgiven. The tone of the addresses 
and speeches delivered at the meetings has been very discreet and 
moderate. There has been some gunpowder vomited forth, par- 
ticularly by a reverend gentleman in Manchester, which might 
have been better spared for a fitter occasion. What we want is a 
sounder public opinion upon the question of national rights and 
the sovereignty of peoples. If we could make up our own minds, 
as a community, that the Eussian intervention in Hungary was 
a violation of the independence of a nation, we should not require 
to threaten war to make our opinion influential. But what were 
the facts, and what are now the facts ? At the time when the 
Czar moved his army across the Carpathians, not only were we 
not agreed as a people in condemning the act, but the Times, 
Guardian, and all the Tory papers, took a view of the intervention 
favorable to Russia. Even Lord Palmerston, in the House, spoke 
apologetically of it. And even now the Times leans to the same 
side. The whole of the Tory party and the aristocracy are hold- 
ing aloof from the Kossuth demonstration. It is clear that we 
want an enlightened and reformed opinion upon the subject of 
non-intervention. Kossuth has done much to change the tone, 
and I think, if 1849 had now to be gone through again, there would 
be such a demonstration of opinion as would scare Nicholas from 
his prey. But there is still very much to be done, and I can 
imagine nothing more calculated to retard the progress of sound 
public opinion than to invite the people to embark in a fresh war 
in favor of Hungarian liberty." 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

THE PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE. 

The signal victory which Lord Palmerston had gained in the sum- 
mer of 1850, was followed before the close of the following year 
by what looked to everybody but himself like a crushing repulse. 
His rapid and peremptory way of doing the business of his office 



;Et.47.] the protectionists in office. 383 

had never been agreeable to the Court. The substantial aims of 
his policy had been in most instances extremely disagreeable to 
some of the continental personages with whom the English Court 
was on terms more or less close. In these high quarters, there- 
fore, he was no favorite. At the very moment of his triumph, 
the Queen transmitted to him a rebuke for neglect of considera- 
tion and observance towards the Crown, so sharply worded that 
when it became public, men looked upon it as an affront not to 
be borne, and wondered that a Minister of Lord Palmerston's 
spirit should not have met it by instant resignation. He did not 
take this course, because, in his own words, to have resigned then 
would have been to give the fruits of victory to adversaries whom 
he had defeated, and to abandon his supporters at the very mo- 
ment when by their means he had just triumphed. It was not 
long, however, before he rashly gave his enemies their opportu- 
nity. When the President of the French Eepublic struck his 
blow against the Assembly, Lord Palmerston thought that he had 
done what was right and expedient, and frankly said as much in 
talking to the French Ambassador in London. Eeference was 
made to the conversation in an official despatch from Paris. The 
despatch came in due course before the Queen and the Prime 
Minister. It was conceived that Lord Palmerston's expression of 
opinion on the President's action, before consultation with his 
colleagues, was a violation of prudence and decorum which 
showed him to be unfit for his post. Lord John Eussell in a 
summary manner dismissed him from office ; and in the debate 
which afterwards took place upon the matter in the House of 
Commons, was generally held at the time to have amply justified 
the dismissal. Hasty observers made up their minds that Lord 
Palmerston's career was at an end. 

Lord Palmerston himself took a very different view. He 
reckoned confidently that the nation would not forget his power 
in foreign affairs. He knew that it did him more good than harm 
to figure as the victim of the Germanism of the Court. He saw 
that the press of the country was almost boisterously on his side. 
Finally, he perceived like everybody else that the Ministry could 
not get through the session, and would probably not stand long 
after the meeting of Parliament. 1 His opportunity came within 
a few days. He had his tit-for-tat with John Eussell — so he 
wrote — and turned him out by carrying an amendment in the 
Militia Bill, which the Minister took as a vote of want of confi- 
dence. Lord John Eussell immediately resigned (February 23), 
and the first administration of the Earl of Derby took the place 
of the last administration of pure Whigs. 

1 See Mr. Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. 218. 



384 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1851. 

In Cobden 5 s eyes the policy of the Militia Bill, and the acces- 
sion to power of the Protectionists, were equally startling and 
equally ill-omened. One event certainly showed a revival of the 
military spirit, and the other for some time was seriously believed 
to threaten a reaction against Free Trade. Cobden made a vig- 
orous speech against the proposal for organizing the militia, con- 
tending that we should be amply protected by our navy, if our 
ships were not systematically sent abroad. He denied the rea- 
sonable probability of invasion, appealing to Lord John Eussell's 
emphatic declaration on the first night of the session, that the re- 
lations of peace existed between this country and foreign nations 
in the fullest degree. Why should we suddenly act .as if a remote 
and highly improbable contingency were an assured certainty ? 
This point of view was not agreeable to the majority, and all that 
Cobden took by his protest was the assurance from a member on 
his own side that he was laboring under a monomania which de- 
prived the country of the services of a very clever man. Cobden 
knew very well what price he and his friends might expect to 
pay for standing aloof from either of the two great factions, and 
refusing to echo the conventional cries of the political market- 
place. In the course of the previous year he had told a great 
meeting of Liberals at Manchester how he stood. Spiteful news- 
papers had begun to talk of him as a disappointed demagogue. 
" This disappointed demagogue," he said, " wants no public em- 
ployment ; if I did, I might have had it before now. I want no 
favor and no title. I want nothing that any Government or any 
party can give me ; and if I am in the House of Commons at all, 
it is to give my feeble aid to the advancement of certain ques- 
tions on which I have strong convictions." If they deprived him 
of this power, if they told him not to do this because it was likely 
to destroy a Government with which he could have little sympa- 
thy, then the sooner he betook himself to something more profit- 
able than sitting up in the House of Commons night after night, 
the better both for himself and his friends. 1 

If Cobden found little support from either the House of Com- 
mons or the country for his opinions on war and armaments, he 
was compensated in part by finding that upon Free Trade at any 
rate there was no backsliding in either the press or the constitu- 
encies. The new Government professed to leave the question of 
Protection open until it should be convenient to appeal to the 
country. This made it impossible for the Free Traders to do 
anything but oppose them. If the Ministers were not for a Corn 
Law, Mr. Bright told them, let them say so. If one of them were 
authorized boldly to avow that the time had gone by when any 

1 Manchester, Feb. 23, 1851. 



.S&.48.] THE PEOTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE. 385 

duty could be imposed upon corn, and to promise that they would 
not tamper with the taxation with a view to compensate certain 
classes for losses alleged to be due to Free Trade, then the Gov- 
ernment should certainly never find him voting a want of confi- 
dence in them. The same rather bitter but perfectly intelligible 
indifference of the Manchester school to the ties which nominally 
connected them with the official world, shows itself pretty clearly 
in Cobden's letters during this long crisis : — 

" House of Commons, Feb. 28. {To George Wilson) — Whilst I 
am writing, Stanley [Lord Derby] is still speaking, but from what 
I hear his plan is to hold the Corn question in suspense, on the 
plea of other grave Parliamentary affairs, and admitting himself in 
a minority in the Commons, to do nothing unless forced to a dis- 
solution by what he calls a factious opposition. The House of 
Commons is always afraid of a dissolution, and this threat may 
not be without its influences on Members. But it appears to me 
that our course is clear. We must not allow the country to be 
kept both in its agricultural and manufacturing interests in hot 
water and confusion for a year. We must challenge to instant 
combat, and memorialize the Queen from all parts of the country 
to dissolve. This will give courage and confidence to our friends, 
and prevent the Members of the House from temporizing. We 
have everything to fear from delay. Popular enthusiasm cools, 
and the enemy being in power will be sharpening the sword with 
which to slay us as soon as we are off guard. Let no other ques- 
tion be mixed up with ours. The country will not entertain 
other reforms' until our question is disposed of." 

"London, Feb. 28. ( „ ) — Further reflection, and the perusal 
of Lord Derby's speech, have confirmed me in my views. We 
must go for memorials to the Queen for a dissolution. We must 
mix up no other question with it, because no other will interest 
the public till it is settled. We may talk of Eeform in Parlia- 
ment, but I would have no resolution excepting upon our own 
question. There should be one resolution affirming our determi- 
nation to renew the League agitation, if necessary to maintain 
Free Trade inviolate ; and another expressing the wish of the 
meeting, for the interests of all concerned, to have the question 
forever settled by an appeal to the country, and therefore praying 
the Queen to dissolve as soon as the forms of Parliament admit. 
I have my doubts yet, whether Lord Derby will dare to go to the 
country on the bread question ; but if he should, he will find nine 
tenths of the men, women, and children even in the rural districts 
dead against him. There is no doubt as to the result of a dissolu- 
tion. Free Trade is stronger in the agricultural districts amongst 
the mass of the people, than you perhaps imagine in Manchester. 
There need not be too much sound and fury in our proceedings. 

25 



386 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1852. 

The very apparition of trie League will settle the question. In 
fact it is the only thing that all parties at headquarters are 
afraid of." 

A couple of days after this letter, the Council of the League met 
in their old quarters at Manchester. Crowds from all parts of 
the country thronged into the great room of Ne wall's Buildings, 
and as one familiar face after another was recognized, the assembly 
became almost as animated as when the great struggle was at its 
height. Cobden moved the first resolution in a terse and pithy 
speech, Mr. Bright and Mr. G-ibson followed, and before the meet- 
ing was over, the men ■ in the room thoroughly understood one 
another and what was to be done ; a large sum of money had been 
subscribed ; and the plan of the electoral campaign had been de- 
termined upon and prepared. 1 

" Manchester, March 3. {To Mrs. Cobden) — The meeting was 
all I could wish in point of influence, numbers, and earnestness. 
But it struck me that people with difficulty realize in their minds 
the necessity of another effort to secure Free Trade. However the 
blow will, I expect, tell decisively." 

" March 5. ( „ ) — The feeling in the West Eiding of 
Yorkshire is most intense amongst the working class. They will 
never allow the Corn Law to be reimposed." 

" London, March 11. {To Mr. Sturge.) — I am not sure that I 
correctly interpret your letter to mean that you prefer to let Lord 
Derby remain in office for fear of seeing back the Whigs. My 
object is to. settle the Free Trade question forever, and to clear the 
ground for other questions. If in doing so I should be instru- 
mental in bringing back the Whigs, it would not be my fault. I 
have no such object in view, and agree with you in wishing they 
could remain in Opposition for the rest of their lives — or at least 
to the day of their reformation. Let us not however deceive our- 
selves by supposing that Lord Derby would be less inclined for 
the Militia than the Whigs. All the aristocratic parties and the 
Court are in favor of more armaments. Our business is to try to 

1 Cobden usually tried to get one salient fact into a speech. On this occasion 
he mentioned a fact that he described as comprising almost their main case : — " Since 
the day when we laid down our arms there has been imported into this country in 
grain and flour of all kinds an amount of human subsistence equal to upwards of 
50,000,000 of quarters of grain — a larger quantity than had been imported from 
foreign countries during the thirty-one years preceding 1846— that is, from the 
peace of 1815 down to the time at which we brought our labors to a close. Now, 
gentlemen, in that one fact is comprised our case. You have had, at the lowest 
computation, 5,000,000 of your countrymen, or countrywomen, or children, sub- 
sisting on the corn that has been brought from foreign countries. And what does 
that say ? What does it say of the comfort you have brought to the homes of those 
families ? What does it say of the peace and prosperity and security of domestic 
life in those homes, where 50,000,000 of quarters of grain extra have been intro- 
duced, and where, but for your exertions, the inmates might have been left either 
in hopeless penury or subsisting on potatoes ? " 



.Et.48.] THE PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE. 387 

make the people of a different opinion ; and when I say the peo- 
ple, I mean that public opinion which alone can enable us to 
break down the martial propensities of the Government. I am 
more and more convinced that we have much to do with the 
public, before we can with any sense or usefulness quarrel with 
this or that aristocratic party. 

" I have watched naturally the tone of the press upon the late 
(as I think monstrous) proposal to increase our armaments. It 
is decidedly against us. I do not speak of the dailies, but of 
the weekly papers ; and I do not allude to such papers as the Ex- 
aminer or Spectator, but to the Weekly Dispatch, read by artisans 
and small shopkeepers, and the Illustrated Weekly News, a 
thorough middle-class print. By these and such as these I have 
been denounced and put out of the pale of practical statesman- 
ship for opposing an increase of armaments. I care nothing for 
this, because I prefer to enjoy the pleasure of advocating my own 
views to the prospects of office. But how many public men who 
have ambition to gratify will range themselves alongside of us, 
so long as the press is thus opposed to them ? To change the 
press, we must change public opinion. And, mind, when I speak 
of the press I speak of those weekly papers which are really sup- 
ported by the people. 

" Never was the military spirit half so rampant in this country 
since the Peace as at present. Look at the late news from Ean- 
goon. 1 Nobody inquires why we killed 300 Burmese. The papers 
applaud the deed without asking for a justification. This makes 
about 5400 persons killed by our ships in the East during the last 
five years, without' our having lost one man by the butcheries ! 
Now give me Free Trade as the recognized policy of all parties in 
this country, and I will find the best possible argument against 
these marauding atrocities. I will then demonstrate to all by 
their own admission that they cannot profit by such proceedings. 
To take away the motive of self-interest is, after all, the nearest 
way to influence the conduct of wicked human nature. Therefore, 
as the moral of this, I exhort you to give the finishing-stroke to 
Free Trade as the best means of advancing your peace principles." 

" March 20. {To J. Sturge.) — As you will have seen by Lord 
Derby's speech in the Lords, the present Government will carry a 
Militia Bill if they can. It is the question upon which they will 
try to raise a discussion in the House with a view to gain time. 
And Lord John Ptussell and his party are so hampered with 
pledges upon the subject, that they cannot offer any opposition 
to at least an introduction of the measure. Therefore you must 

1 This was the beginning of the Second Burmese War, which Cobden dealt with 
in the following year in his pamphlet, How Wars are got up in India. See Col- 
lected Writings, vol. ii. 



388 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1852. 

not relax in your efforts to prevent the scheme from being carried 
out. The invasion panic seems pretty nearly forgotten." 

" London, March 20. {To George Wilson) — .... The Derby- 
Disraelites are not going to give up their berths in a hurry, and 
they would be fools if they did so, for they are opposed to an 
Opposition whose leaders have not the pluck (and Dizzy's inso- 
lence shows that he knows it) to stop the supplies. I have been 
in constant communication with Lord John and Graham, but they 
are not the men to strike the blow, and we are powerless without 
them. The excuse they put forward is the fear that some of the 
Peel party and Palmerston will not join in a vote of want of con- 
fidence — such as limiting the supplies, and that we might be in 
a minority. I have urged upon them again and again that prompt- 
ness and courage will carry everybody with them — that the mem- 
bers on our side'of the House will for the sake of their elections 
vote for the Free Trade majority. But timidity carries the day. 
And so I suppose these men will be in office till November. In 
the mean time they will get rid of their Protectionist pledges, and 
try to reconstruct a Tory party — and as we, the present Opposi- 
tion, are a rope of sand with an Irish party pledged against the 
Whigs, I see no reason why Derby should not have a fresh lease 
upon a Free Trade policy. Gladstone, Goulburn, Sidney Herbert, 
Palmerston, have more affinity for the Tories than for us, and 
nothing but Free Trade keeps us on the same benches. True, 
there will be one difficulty in the way of their making a party. 
"What could they do with Disraeli, if Gladstone were on the same 
bench ? 

" There is now no doubt that the Protectionists are slipping 
away from their principles at a gallop, and we shall be in danger 
of wasting our strength in firing ball cartridges at a dead lion." 

" London, March 23. ( „ ) — I have done all I possibly 
could with Lord John to induce him to act with more vigor. He 
is hampered with pledges and opinions given or expressed to the 
Queen or Lord Derby when he went out of office, which prevent 
him from taking a leading part in advocating an immediate disso- 
lution of Parliament. And yet, as you will have seen, he is in 
no way inclined to let anybody else lead our side of the House. 

" I have spoken in the same way to Sir James Graham, who 
has been in consultation with his colleagues of the late Peel party, 
and I have a long letter from him explaining why he thinks we 
must be content for the present with the declaration of Lord 
Derby. He fears that some of his party would not vote for limit- 
ing the supplies for the military services. But they still leave it 
open to deal with the miscellaneous estimates, if the Government 
should be inclined to postpone unreasonably the appeal to the 
country. Last night, owing to the rapidity with which the money 



^T.48.] THE PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE. 389 

was voted, there seemed to be an impression that we should dis- 
solve early in May. 

" What are you doing ? You ought at once to make out a list 
of those places which are safe, and waste no attention or money 
on them. Then look to places like Sunderland, Liverpool, Lincoln, 
Boston, where there will be Protectionists standing, and there 
you ought to concentrate your strength by distribution of telling 
tracts and handbills. Not caricatures or poetry or sarcasm, but 
brief and pithy facts, for in those places people are not up to 
the mark. Pictorial tracts or handbills are good, but they should 
be pictorial facts, not caricatures." 

"May 5. {To J. Sturge.) — I am not quite sure yet that we 
may not draw the sting from the Militia Bill, and make it so differ- 
ent a thing in Committee that its author may repudiate it. It is 
thought that the present Government is vexed at having to carry 
the measure through, and they will be far more sick of it before 
we have done with them. Last night, or rather this morning at 
one o'clock, in the heat of the strife Disraeli was drawn into 
another Protectionist avowal, which will embarrass him again. In 
fact, the Militia Bill seems destined to bring no end of trouble 
upon all Governments who meddle with it, and we shall do our 
best to make the present Ministers sick of their adopted child. 
It is the wretched Whigs alone who render such bad measures 
possible. But Lord John seems to have paid an ample penalty." 

" June 9. ( „ ) — I admire your hopefulness, and must 
confess myself to be much disgusted and almost dismayed at the 
proceedings on the Militia Bill. I will never forgive the Whigs 
for this retrograde step. On analyzing the division list, I find 
that in almost every case, where it was possible to bring public 
opinion to bear upon members, your party succeeded in prevent- 
ing them from supporting the third reading. The majority was 
made up of county members (chiefly Protectionists) and the 
representatives of small pocket boroughs. This shows that, if we 
had a fair representation, you could hold the military party in 
check. But you can do nothing without a change in the county 
representation, and there is no county that sends such bad mem- 
bers as that where you live." 

The elections for a new Parliament extended over the month of 
July. Cobden and his Conservative colleague again divided the 
representation of the West Eiding without a contest. Mr. Gibson 
and Mr. Bright won at Manchester by handsome majorities. 
Taken broadly the strength of parties had not shifted, and 'there 
was no approach to such a change as would have justified a 
reversal of the policy of Free Trade. The Government gained 
strength enough to resist a vote of want of confidence, if it should 
be proposed, but not strength enough to carry their measures. 



390 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1852. 

What shrewd observers like Lord Palrnerston expected was that 
they would be beaten upon some fanciful scheme for relieving 
everybody without increasing anybody's burdens, " which would 
be speedily seen to be too mountebankish to be practicable." 1 
This is what actually happened. Meanwhile Cobden and his 
friends did not relax their vigilance. 

" Midhurst, August 18. {To George Wilson) — If you have 
money in hand, would it not be well to keep it until we have 
fairly disposed of the Protectionist party ? The Government 
ought to be driven to avow Free Trade opinions, or be driven 
from office. It will not be easy to do either, unless the League 
still shows a formidable front to all trimmers. "We must not 
abandon the field whilst professing Protectionists hold office. 
The Government will be in a difficulty how to change their Pro- 
tectionist garments for a Free Trade suit without breaking up 
their party. But our object is or ought to be to break up the 
County gang, which exists only upon the basis of Protection. Do 
not therefore throw away your balance, but keep it and let the 
world know that you have it." 

" Midhurst, Sept. 14, 1852. {To Mr. Sturge) — I hold, that be- 
fore you can rationally hope to reduce the army or the navy, you 
must bring the public mind to agree to the abolition of the militia. 
And I should also, with all due deference, say, that until we can 
recover this lost ground for the Peace party in England, it will 
be a little inconsistent in us to travel abroad to teach our doc- 
trines to other nations. The establishment of the militia was a 
disastrous defeat sustained by the Peace party, and until we can 
regain our position of 1851, it is useless to think of getting back 
to 1835. How are we to take this step and thus recover our lost 
position ? I repeat, by acquiring some influence in the Counties, 
for it was by the votes of county members in opposition to a 
majority of the representatives of boroughs that the measure was 
passed. And if you have watched the announcements in the 
Gazette since the passing of the law, you must have seen the sin- 
ister influences which were at work to carry the Bill. Have you 
marked the shoal of deputy-lieutenants created as a part of the 
working machinery of the law ? Every magistrate almost in 
these parts has been gazetted as a deputy-lieutenant, and is of 
course entitled to appear at Court with his official costume and 
cocked hat and feathers. Then have you observed the lists of 
appointments and promotions as officers of the militia ? There is 
quite a flood of flunkeyism and patronage in the counties. Lords- 
Lieutenant are looking patronizingly upon the Squire ; and the 
Squire's son is snobbishly looking up to his Lordship for a grade 

1 Lord Palrnerston, in Mr. Ashley's Life, ii. 247, 248. 



jEt.48.] THE PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE. 391 

in the county militia. Then there is all the small patronage for 
printers, surgeons, lawyers, etc., with its necessary consequence 
of servility and demoralization on the part of all interested. The 
whole of the working of the militia is calculated to foster and 
strengthen an aristocratic system and to degrade the mass of the 
people." 

" Sept. 20. {To Mr. Sturge.) — The death of the Duke 1 would, 
one thinks, tend to weaken the military party. But, if the spirit 
survive, it will find its champions. After all, if the country will 
do such work as "Wellington was called on to perform, I don't 
know that it could find a more honest instrument. He hated jobs 
and spoke the truth (the very opposite of Marlborough), and 
although he grew rich in the service, it was by the voluntary con- 
tributions of the Parliament and Government. If he had been 
told to help himself at the Exchequer, his modesty and honesty 
would never have allowed him to take as much as was forced 
upon him. I, who saw with what frenzy of admiration he was 
welcomed by all classes at the Exhibition, can never honestly 
admit that in what the Legislature and Government had done for 
him, they had exceeded the wishes of the nation. Let us hope 
that a more rational sentiment may be promoted amongst us, but 
we are slow to learn. At this moment we are doing more than 
any other people to keep up the vast peace armaments of which 

we complain Can you in the face of such facts travel to 

the Continent to advocate a reduction of establishments ? " 

" Miclhurst, October 4. {To J. Wilson) — It having been de- 
cided to hold a meeting, 2 there is nothing more to be said but to 
make the best of it. I think you are quite right in having de- 
termined to mix nothing with the Free Trade question 

All the reflection I can give to the subject confirms me in the 
opinion that we ought to confine ourselves in the first instance to 
the settlement of the Free Trade question, without attempting to 
tie to that proceeding any ulterior plan whether of a personal or 
political nature. We are entitled to at least a Free Trade Gov- 
ernment to represent the opinion of the country. If the present 
Administration do not avow themselves to have cast off their 
Protectionist opinions, and to have adopted Free Trade views, 
they ought to be turned out. I would not be contented by their 
saying that they will not attempt to reverse the policy of Sir E. 
Peel ' because they have not the power to do so.' They must 
profess adhesion to that policy and recant their own errors; they 
must promise to promote and extend these principles ; and fail- 
ing in all this, we must by any legitimate means drive them into 

1 The Duke of Wellington died on the 14th of September. 

2 A great meeting of the League party in Manchester, in opposition to the Derby- 
Disraeli ministry. 



392 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1852. 

resignation. Can we do this ? All depends upon the course 
taken by the Peel party, and I am glad to see by the tone of, 
Henley's speech that the old bitterness of the Protectionists 
towards them still survives. Indeed, so long as Disraeli con- 
tinues at the head of the Tory party, I do not see how Gladstone, 
Sidney Herbert, and the rest of Peel's followers, can ever rejoin 
them. But much depends upon the League pursuing an honest 
course. We must not look to the right or left, but as of old 
go with a single purpose to our object. We must not allow our- 
selves to be used by the Whigs or Peelites, but hold the balance 
fairly between them." 

Parliament met on the 4th of November, but it was the 11th 
before the preliminary formalities were over. The Queen's Speech 
contained a paragraph of a very oblique kind on the question 
which was uppermost in everybody's mind. If Parliament was of 
opinion that recent legislation had contributed to the improved 
condition of the country, and yet had at the same time inflicted 
injury on important interests, then it was recommended by the 
Queen to consider how far it was practicable to mitigate the in- 
jury, and to enable the country to meet unrestricted competition. 
Writing to his wife on the day after the debate on the Address, 
Cobden says, — " We had a queer tricky allusion to the Free Trade 
question in the Queen's Speech, which brought on a sharp attack 
upon the Government last night, and as all parties are agreed to 
force the Disraelites, I hope we shall bring matters to an end 
soon. It is time we were done with the question." 

The process, however, took a little time, and was attended with 
some difficulties. " I am sorry to say," Cobden wrote a few days 
later (November 18), " I think it is quite impossible under any 
circumstances that I can be released before the 10th December. 
If even the Government were upset, there would still be certain 
things to be done which would take till that time. This has been 
luckily a very fine day. I have not been near the line of proces- 
sion. 1 But Sale and Henry Ashworth have both called since it 
was over, and they think people are disappointed. It is the last 
piece of paganism of the kind that will ever be performed in 
this country, for I hear everybody in private in the House (even 
Tories) condemn it. But nobody dares to speak out in public. 

" You will see by the paper that on Thursday Dizzy is to move 
an amendment to Villiers's address. Altogether, what with this 
inconsistent declaration of Free Trade principles coming from 
their own party, and this escapade of Disraeli's on moving the 
address for Wellington's funeral, 2 the Protectionist party is very 

1 The Duke of Wellington's funeral. 

2 Mr. Disraeli in his funeral oration on the Duke introduced bodily a passage 
from a panegyric delivered by M. Thiers many years before on Marshal Gouvion de 



JIt.48.] THE PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE. 393 

much demoralized, and will I think be broken up in a week or 
two. They never can hold together, for a score or two of honest, 
stupid people will still hold out, and in fact will be in a more 
creditable plight than in going over with the herd." 

" Nov. 24 ( „ ) — We have a fresh complication in the House, 
owing to Palmerston having played us a trick in moving a new 
amendment. The Whigs are very indignant, and the Liberals are 
now confessing that we found him out some years ago, and they 
now call him a traitor and worse. It is impossible to say how 
matters will go." 

The story of these final manoeuvres need not detain us. It was 
indispensable to pin the Ministers to an explicit acceptance of the 
policy of Free Trade. The Ministers were willing to give the 
required pledge, but they sought to escape the humiliation of a 
formal confession that the legislation which they had resisted 
with an obstinacy and a rancor unsurpassed in political history, 
had been wise, just, and beneficial. These were the "three odious 
epithets," as Mr. Disraeli styled them, with which Mr. Villiers 
asked the House by their resolution to stamp the Act of 1846. 
To call the policy just was particularly unpalatable, because, if it 
was just, then what wrong was left for compensation ? Mr. Disraeli 
deprecated this revival of the cries of exhausted factions and obso- 
lete politics. He proposed a resolution which while acknowledg- 
ing the effect of recent legislation in cheapening provisions, and 
binding the Government unreservedly to adhere to the policy of 
unrestricted competition, still contained no declaration that the 
opinions of the Protectionist party had been mistaken or had un- 
dergone any change. The whole question turned upon the way 
in which the national verdict was to be worded. Was this solemn 
final declaration to be drawn up, Mr. Bright asked, by one who 
had repudiated Free Trade as Mr. Disraeli had clone, or by one 
who had consistently supported it as Mr. Villiers had done ? The 
question was not an idle point of etiquette. A majority of the 
friends of the Government no further back than the recent elec- 
tions had openly declared either for a reversal of Sir Eobert Peel's 
policy, or for compensation — the word that never fails to come 
into our ears when a favored order is stripped of some unjust and 
mischievous privilege. Under these circumstances, ought the 
House to tolerate any evasion ? 

This was a manly statement of the case. The interests of po- 
litical morality demanded that the Protectionists should either be 

Saint Cyr. It had already appeared in an article in the Morning Chronicle in 1848 ; 
but the writer, a brilliant man well known in society, came forward to say that it 
was Mr. Disraeli who had called his attention to the passage from Thiers. The 
"escapade " was singular, and it was certainly unfortunate, but men of letters, who 
know the tricks that memory is capable of playing, will hardly think it incapable 
of fair explanation. 



394 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1852. 

forced publicly to recant an error which they had upheld with so 
much stupidity and so much virulence, and in some cases with 
such unscrupulous hypocrisy and want of principle, or else that 
on this issue, and no other, they should be driven from power. 
But the complex play of party combinations seldom permits these 
plain and unsophisticated courses. It did not suit Lord Palmer- 
ston that the Government should be turned out too soon. His 
plans for the succession were not ripe. A hurried crisis might 
make Lord John Eussell again Prime Minister, and under him 
Lord Palmerston was resolved not to serve. A little more time 
was needed to clear this up, and accordingly, with a view of saving 
the Ministry from a repulse which would for his purposes have 
been premature, Lord Palmerston suggested a third form of reso- 
lution which would content Liberals, and which Protectionists 
might swallow. It became evident that this would meet the 
wishes of important sections of the House, always ready to be 
captivated by anything that wears the air of moderation and com- 
promise. Mr. Disraeli perceived that he was saved, and withdrew 
his own amendment in favor of Lord Palmerston's. Cobden now 
made his first direct attack on Lord Palmerston, and he made it 
in very straightforward terms. But in the long-run Mr. Villiers's 
motion was rejected by a majority of eighty, and then Lord Palm- 
erston's was carried by a majority of four hundred and fifteen. 

The field was now clear for Mr. Disraeli's Budget. It had been 
awaited with eager expectation. The Government was without 
weight, but it was not unpopular. There was no general anxiety 
to see the Whigs back again. A miracle of financial talent might 
still save the Ministry, though it had neither political principles 
nor administrative experience. There was a vivid curiosity of a 
personal and dramatic kind. Men wondered how the skilful gladi- 
ator would acquit himself, who had never been in office until he 
was made leader of the House of Commons. In a few hours after 
Mr. Disraeli had stated his plans, it seemed as if they were a 
success. One thing at any rate was clear ; Free Trade was safe. 
" The Budget," Cobden wrote to Mr. George Wilson, the day after 
Mr. Disraeli's speech (December 4), " has finally closed the con- 
troversy with Protection. Dizzy has in the most impudent way 
thrown over the 'local burdens,' as he did before a fixed duty. 1 
The League may be dissolved when you like." 

When the discussion on the ministerial proposals opened, a 
week later, it was at once seen that the first favorable impression 

1 When the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that he was not going to 
recommend any change whatever in the system of raising the local taxes, a good 
deal of loud and derisive triumph was exhibited on the other side. " Oh," said 
Mr. Disraeli with composure, "there are greater subjects for us to consider than the 
triumph of obsolete opinions," 



jEt.48.] THE PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE. 395 

had been a mistake, and that they could not stand the heavy fire 
which was now opened upon them by all the ablest and most ex- 
perienced men in the House. All Mr. Disraeli's energy, self-pos- 
session, and resource were no match in defending a plan that was 
hollow and vicious in itself, against the forces that were now 
combined to overthrow him. Among other shifts, he conceived 
the idea of detaching the Manchester party from the Whigs and 
the Peelites. He asked one of their leaders to call upon him. 
" Protection," he said to the illustrious Free Trader, " is done with. 
That quarrel is at an end. If you turn us out, you will only have 
the Whigs in. And what have the Whigs done for you ? They 
will never do anything for you." As a matter of fact Lord Palm- 
erston's manoeuvre had made the Free Traders even less friendly 
to the Whigs than they had been before. But it was impossible 
that Economic Liberals could support a Budget so fantastic and 
unsound. It proposed to repeal the malt-tax to please the farm- 
ers, and then to reimburse the exchequer by an increase of the 
house-tax, which was of course chiefly payable in the towns. " We 
don't want the Whigs to give us office," said Mr. Disraeli's visitor. 
" We don't think of that. In any case, we cannot support the 
new house-tax. And there are other things in your Budget which 
we think wrong." So the interview came to an end. Cobden 
spoke against the Ministerial plan in the course of the debate, but 
apparently with rather less power than usual. Mr. Disraeli wound 
up a vehement defence of himself by an invective against political 
coalitions. He had himself, it is true, a few days before been a 
party to an attempt to coalesce with Lord Palmerston. But noth- 
ing could save him against the union of Whigs, Peelites, and Eco- 
nomic Liberals, and he was beaten by a majority of nineteen. The 
next day Lord Derby resigned (December 17), and the Aberdeen 
Administration was formed. The long deferred fusion took place 
between the chief followers of Sir Eobert Peel and their old adver- 
saries. Philosophic Eadicalism was represented in the cabinet 
by Sir William Molesworth. The Economic Eadicalism of Cob- 
den and his friends was left out, as Mr. Disraeli had foretold. 
The time speedily came when Cobden was driven to say that he 
never repented so much of a vote in his life as of that which he 
had now just given. 



396 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1852. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

THE PANIC OF 1853. 

Some have noticed it as an odd coincidence that the voting for the 
Second Empire took place three days after the funeral of the 
Duke of Wellington. We might picture to ourselves, said Cob- 
den, the third Napoleon rising from the yet open tomb of the 
vanquisher of the first. That event of sinister omen for France 
naturally roused considerable disquiet in England. But what had 
been a natural disquiet was exaggerated by the press and a cer- 
tain influential class of politicians into a fit of angry and violent 
alarm. The massacre of unarmed citizens on the boulevards with 
which Louis Napoleon had cowed Paris and sealed his usurpation, 
had filled England with a just and righteous horror. But from 
reprobation of this deed of bloodshed to an invasion panic, there 
ought to have been a long step. Statesmen at least, whether 
journalists or actors in politics, might have been expected to ab- 
stain from flogging the public mind into a state of furious appre- 
hension. Especially is this true of statesmen who, bike Lord 
Palmerston, had been the first in the Days of December to ap- 
plaud the President for tearing up the Constitution and throwing 
the national representatives into prison. Lord Palmerston, how- 
ever, who notwithstanding his astuteness and his high spirits had 
a strong dash of honest stupidity in his composition, had got it 
into his head that steamships had thrown a bridge across the 
British Channel. It was now perfectly possible, he said, that all 
England might waken up some morning to find that 50,000 French- 
men had landed on her shores in the course of the previous night. 
It was in vain that military and naval authorities demonstrated 
the physical impossibility of this electric suddenness of invasion. 
It was in vain that statesmen like Sir Eobert Peel had asked the 
House to figure to itself the surprise with which Lord Palmerston 
himself, sitting in Downing Street with all the threads of Euro- 
pean diplomacy concentrated like so many telegraphic wires in 
his cabinet, would hear that on that day fortnight 150,000 men 
were to be landed on the shores of Great Britain. Lord Palmer- 
ston held to his fixed idea. During Peel's Ministry he had so in- 
cessantly asked alarmist questions, that even Sir Eobert himself 
began to think of a Militia Bill. Lord John Eussell was no sooner 
in office than the same influence was brought to bear, and in due 
time led to the Militia Bill which incidentally brought his Minis- 



jBr.48.] THE PANIC OF 1853. 397 

try to an end. Lord Derby's first measure on taking his prede- 
cessor's place was to bring in another Militia Bill, and the ener- 
getic support which was given to it by Lord Palmerston was one 
of the chief secrets of its success. 

The organization of the militia was followed on the erection of 
the French Empire by an increase in each branch of the two ser- 
vices. Every condition was present which according to Cobden's 
diagnosis favored the growth of an invasion panic. The country 
was very prosperous. Under the influence of Free Trade and the 
gold discoveries, the exports had risen in five years from fifty to 
one hundred millions sterling per annum. The manufacturers 
were rolling in new opulence. The revenue was satisfactory. 
The country gentlemen found that they were not ruined after all, 
but on the contrary were getting better rents than ever. There 
was, moreover, a not unnatural reaction against the outburst of 
pacific and fraternal exaggerations to which the Great Exhibition 
had given rise. The death of the Duke of Wellington, and the 
recapitulation in a thousand funeral orations of his splendid 
exploits, had turned men's minds to all the pomp and circum- 
stance of war, to heroic campaigns, to glorious and crowning 
victories. 

When the nation is in the humor to indulge itself in the luxury 
of a panic, the mood never declines for lack of nourishment. The 
oracles of the military and naval clubs hurried to the Times with 
agitating communications. Every half-pay officer in the country 
had his own peculiar alarm and his own favorite plan. The coun- 
ters of the booksellers were strewn with pamphlets like snowflakes, 
containing a Few Observations on Invasion, Brief Suggestions for 
a Eeserve Force, Short Notes on National Defence, Plain Propo- 
sals for a Maritime Militia, Thoughts on the Peril of Portsmouth. 
Every morning a fresh and more terrible paragraph sent a thrill 
round the breakfast-table. There was a French plot to secure a 
naval station in the West Indies. General Changarnier had di- 
vulged a secret plan for seizing the metropolis. The French troops 
were tired of Kome, and were jealous of their share in the sack of 
London. The great shipbuilders on the Clyde had received an 
order for steam frigates from the French Government. A French 
man-of-war had actually appeared at Dover. It was to no pur- 
pose that each paragraph was demolished the very day after its 
publication. The Frenchman had been driven to Dover by stress 
of weather ; General Changarnier said that his alleged plan was 
absolutely without foundation; the shipbuilders solemnly declared 
that no order for steam frigates had come into the Clyde. All 
this made no difference, and the panic ran its course. As Cobden 
justly said, nothing could surpass the childlike simplicity with 
which every absurd and improbable rumor was believed, unless it 



398 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1852. 

were the stolid scepticism with which all offers to demonstrate 
their falsehood were rejected. 1 

Cobden was proud to recall that he and his friends in face of 
this outcry took the part which had been taken by the great 
political leaders who addressed our forefathers half a century be- 
fore, and who bore the most honored names in the history of 
English Liberalism. Nothing pleased him better than to remind 
those who taunted him with his alliance with the Peace Society, 
that the Society of Friends co-operated with Mr. Fox in trying to 
prevent the war of 1793, and that Mr. Fox was not at all ashamed 
to write to Mr. Gurney, of Norwich, begging him to get up county 
meetings, and to send petitions whether from Quakers or others 
to the House of Commons. Cobden spent the autumn between 
the general election and the meeting of Parliament in turning 
over these things. His industrious meditations took shape in a 
pamphlet which he intended to do something to appease the per- 
turbation of the popular spirit. Before he actually sat down to 
composition, he wrote an interesting letter to his friend, Mr. 
Thomasson, of Bolton : — 

" Midhurst, Sept. 27. — The course pursued by Brougham and all 
the "Whig party at the close of the war, in opposition to the large 
standing armaments proposed to be maintained by the Tories, 
was precisely that which the Peace party are now taking in oppo- 
sition to both Whigs and Tories. The former have since that 
time been in power, and there is perfect truth in the sarcasm that 
the Whigs are Tories in office, and the Tories are Whigs when 
out of office. But the misfortune is that, after having been in 
power and committed to all the bad measures of a Whig Govern- 
ment, the Whigs are rendered quite useless as an Opposition ; and 
we have now arrived at that point that whether on the right or 
left hand side of the Speaker's chair, the Liberal party headed by 
the Whigs are incapable of doing any good for the country. But 
before you and I (men of peace as we are) find fault with the 
Whig chiefs, let us ask ourselves candidly whether the country 
at large is in favor of any other policy than that which has been 
pursued by the aristocracy, Whig and Tory, for the last century 
and a half ?. The man who impersonated that policy more than 
any other was the Duke of Wellington ; and I had the daily op- 
portunity of witnessing at the Great Exhibition last year that all 
other objects of interest sank to insignificance even in that collec- 
tion of a world's wonders when he made his entry in the Crystal 
Palace. The frenzy of admiration and enthusiasm which took 
possession of a hundred thousand people of all classes at the very 
announcement of his name, was one of the most impressive 

1 See Gobden's account in his pamphlet, written in 1862, The Three Panics. 
Political Writings, ii. 235-270. 



JJt.48.] THE PANIC OF 1853. 399 

lessons I ever had of the real tendencies of the English char- 
acter The recent demonstration at the death of the Duke 

was in keeping with what I have described. Now what does all 
this imply but a war-spirit in the population ? As for the claims 
of the old warrior to popularity as a statesman, they amount to 
this, that he resisted two reforms, Catholic Emancipation and the 
Reform Bill, until we were on the verge of rebellion, and yielded 
at last avowedly only to avoid civil war; and in a third case 
(repeal of the Corn Law) he gave in his acquiescence to Peel 
after his old policy had plunged tfhe half the kingdom into the 
horrors of plague, pestilence, and famine. No, depend upon it, 
the world never yet knew so warlike and aggressive a people as 
the British. 

" I wish to see a map on Mercator's projection published, with 
a red spot to mark the places on sea and land where bloody bat- 
tles have been fought by Englishmen. It would be found that, 
unlike every other people, we have during seven centuries been 
fighting with foreign enemies everywhere excepting on our own 
soil. Need another word be said to prove us the most aggressive 
race under the sun ? The Duke's career is no exception to this 
rule. His victories in India were a page in those bloody annals 
for which God will assuredly exact a retribution from us or our 
children ; and his triumphs on the Continent can never be truly 
said to have been achieved in defence of our own independence 
or liberty. His descent upon the Peninsula was made after 
Nelson had at the battle of Trafalgar destroyed Napoleon's power 
at sea. Erom that moment we were as safe from molestation in 
our island home, as if we had inhabited another planet. Yet from 
that time till the close of the war we spent four or five hundred 
millions sterling upon Continental quarrels. ' Oh,' but say the 
flatterers of our national vain-gloriousness, ' we saved the liberties 
of Europe.' Precious liberties truly ! Look at them from Cadiz 
to Moscow ! The moral of all this is that we have to pull against 
wind and tide in trying to put down the warlike spirit of our 
countrymen. It must be done by showing them that their ener- 
gies have been perverted to a disastrous course, so far as their 
interests are concerned, by a ruling class which has reaped all 
the honors and emoluments, while the nation inherits the burdens 
and responsibilities. Our modern history must be rewritten." 

The pamphlet in which he now engaged, "1792 and 1853, in 
Three Letters" was, in fact, a modest attempt on Cobden's own 
part to rewrite in his own way one very relevant episode of that 
modern history of which he speaks in his letter. He makes no 
pretence of an original historical inquiry into the sources of the 
war between England and France in 1793. What he does is to 
show, and he finds an easy task in showing from the speeches of 



400 - LIFE OP COBDEN. [1853. 

leading members of the war Cabinet, as well as from the narratives 
of Tory historians like Scott and Alison, that the alleged grounds 
of the war were not the real motives either of the English Gov- 
ernment or the English people. The French had opened the 
navigation of the Scheldt ; they had invaded Holland ; the Con- 
vention had passed the famous decree of fraternity, declaring in 
the name of the French nation that it would grant assistance to 
all peoples who should wish to recover their liberty, and charging 
the executive power to give the necessary orders to its generals. 
These were the three nominal grounds of quarrel. The real 
ground behind them all was the violent hatred which a conserva- 
tive nation like the English inevitably felt towards the revolu- 
tionary policy of France. For the actual motives we must look 
to Burke's philippics, and not to Lord Grenville's despatches. 
But deep-rooted hatred can be no evidence that a war prompted 
by it is necessary or just; and as a matter of fact there are very 
few persons now alive who, having examined the records of 
English policy in 1793, do not condemn the war of that year as 
both impolitic and unnecessary. Cobden would be justified by 
most modern students of the period in his contempt for the plea 
that the French were the first to declare war. It was manifest 
from the middle of December, 1792, that the English Government 
intended to join the Continental powers, and for the very plain 
reason, apart from the captivity and imminent death of the king, 
that France had shown herself more than their match. For a 
time it was believed that the Revolution had broken up the army 
and dispersed the resources of the country. It was expected that 
Prussia and Austria would find the restoration of the old system 
in France easy to accomplish. For so long the English Ministry 
looked with a certain complacency on events which promised 
finally to lower their natural rival, and to punish France for the 
aid and comfort that she had bestowed on the rebellion of the 
American colonies against Great Britain. 

Of course, if Cobden had professed to be writing a history of 
that momentous epoch, he would have had to take many circum- 
stances into account which for his purpose at the moment might 
fairly be allowed to go for nothing. Chauvelin, for instance, was 
not so humble and innocent an emissary as Cobden's language 
might leave us to suppose ; he was a coxcomb without either judg- 
ment or address. The success of the French arms, again, coming 
after a period of intense apprehension, nursed in the Convention 
an arrogant and overbearing spirit which would probably have 
made the maintenance of peace with even a less proud Govern- 
ment than that of Great Britain extremely difficult. What is 
clear is that it would have been well for England, and probably 
for Europe too, if the British Government had done their best to 



,Et.49.] THE PANIC OF 1853. 401 

remain at peace with the new Eepublic. And what is equally- 
clear is, as Cobden showed, that the British Government when 
the crisis came, so far from doing their best to remain at peace, 
hurried violently into war. The many elastic possibilities of 
history did not concern a writer whose pressing object was to de- 
molish the opinion, which the feeling of the moment when Cobden 
wrote made so mischievous, that it was the restless and aggressive 
spirit of France which first provoked the great war- that opened 
upon Europe in 1792. This task, as I have said, was tolerably 
easy, and nobody who has fully considered the circumstances of 
the Declaration of Pilnitz will deny that though there were politi- 
cal parties in France to whom the foreign war that was forced 
upon them was for domestic reasons not unwelcome, yet Cobden 
was strictly right in his thesis that the French Government had, 
in 1792, given no ground of offence to foreign nations. " It is im- 
possible," Cobden breaks out, in the fulness and sincerity of his 
emotion, " to read the speeches of Fox at this time, without feel- 
ing one's heart yearn with admiration and gratitude for the bold 
and resolute manner in which he opposed the war, never yielding 
and never repining under the most discouraging defeats ; and, al- 
though deserted by many of his friends in the House, taunted with 
having only a score of followers left, and obliged to admit that he 
could not walk the streets without being insulted by hearing the 
charge made against him of carrying on an improper correspond- 
ence with the enemy in France, yet bearing it all with uncom- 
plaining manliness and dignity. The annals of Parliament do not 
record a nobler struggle in a nobler cause." 

No part of the pamphlet was more likely to be useful than that 
in which Cobden explained to his countrymen that the French 
nation, instead of being ashamed of the Eevolution, and envious 
of the social advancement of England, as we in the fatuousness 
of national vanity used to persist in believing, do in fact cling to 
the work of 1789 with appreciation, thankfulness, and invincible 
tenacity ; and that men of the most opposite opinions on every 
other subject, agree that to the Eevolution in its normal phases 
France is indebted for a more rapid advance in civilization, wealth, 
and happiness, than was ever previously made by any community 
of a similar extent in the same period of time. No people, he 
went on, have ever clung with more unshaken stanch ness to the 
essential principles and main objects of a Eevolution than have the 
French. "When you say that their new Emperor is absolute and his 
will omnipotent, remember that there, are three things which even 
he dare not attempt to do. He dare not attempt to endow with 
land and tithes one sect as the exclusively paid religion of the State. 
He could not create a system of primogeniture and entail. And 
finally he could not impose a tax on succession to personal property, 

26 



402 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1853. 

and leave real property free. In England we have all three. " I 
am penning these pages," said Cobden, sitting in his little study at 
Dunford, " in a maritime county. Stretching from the sea, right 
across to the verge of the next count} 7- , and embracing great part of 
the parish in which I sit, are the estates of three proprietors, which 
extend in almost unbroken masses for upwards of twenty miles. 
The residence of one of them is surrounded with a walled park ten 
miles in circumference. Well, if Louis Napoleon were to create 
three such estates in France, it would be fatal to him. Tell the 
eight millions of landed proprietors in France that they shall 
exchange lots with the English people, where the laborer who 
cultivates the farm has no more proprietary interest in the soil 
than the horses he drives, and he will be stricken with horror." 

All this was said, not to urge the land question, but to press 
upon his countrymen the habit of which of all others they stand 
most in need, of learning to tolerate the feelings and predilections 
of other nations. "Let us spare our pity," he insisted, " where 
people are contented ; and withhold our contempt from a nation 
who hold what they prize by the vigilant exercise of public 
opinion." What the Frenchman cherishes is equality; what the 
Englishman cherishes is personal liberty. The poorest cottager 
on any of the three estates that encircle Heyshott " feels that his 
personal liberty is sacred, and he cares little for equality. And 
here I will repeat," says Cobden, " that I would rather live in a 
country where this feeling in favor of individual freedom is jeal- 
ously cherished, than be without it in the enjoyment of all the 
principles of the French Constituent Assembly." It is passages 
like this that help us to understand the secret of Cobden's po- 
sition, and of his attraction. He was so much of an Englishman, 
while he strove to show how Englishmen might become more 
generous, more noble, and more just in their judgments on other 
nations. 

His words about Louis Napoleon contained an admirable illusr 
tration of the same ever wholesome lesson : — "It is hardly 
necessary to declare that, were Louis Napoleon an Englishman, or 
I a Frenchman, however small a minority of opponents he might 
have, I should be one of them ; — that is all I have to say in the 
matter ; for anything more would in my opinion be mere imper- 
tinence towards the French people, who for reasons best known 
to themselves acquiesce in his rule." And as to the first and 
stronger Napoleon, the French feeling for his memory which had 
just been so strikingly manifested in the immense and spontaneous 
vote for the Empire of his nephew, became an intelligible senti- 
ment in Cobden's pages, instead of remaining the wicked mania 
that it appeared to the majority of his countrymen. We, he said, 
who have just paid almost pagan honors to the remains of a gen- 



^St.49.] THE PANIC OF 1853. 403 

-eral who fought the battles of the Coalition, — " what should we 
have done in honor of those soldiers who beat back from our 
frontiers confederate armies of literally every nation in Christian 
Europe, except Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland ? Should we 
not, if we were Frenchmen, be greater worshippers of the name of 
Napoleon, if possible, than we are of Wellington and Nelson, and 
with greater reason ? Should we not forgive him his ambition, 
his selfishness, his despotic rule ? Would not every fault be for- 
gotten in the recollection that he humbled Prussia, who had with- 
out provocation assailed us in the throes of a domestic revolution, 
and that he dictated terms at Vienna to Austria, who had actually 
begun the dismemberment of our own territory ? . . . . Should 
we not indulge a feeling of proud defiance in electing for the chief 
of the State the next heir to that great military hero, the child 
and champion of the Eevolution, whose family had been especially 
proscribed by the coalesced powers before whom he finally fell ? 
Yes, however wise men might moralize, and good men mourn, 
these would under the circumstances, I am sure, be the feelings 
and passions of Englishmen, ay, and probably in even a stronger 
degree than they are now cherished in France." 

Cobden would certainly have been the last man in the world to 
deny that there was another and historically truer version of Na- 
poleon's career than the version of the Napoleonic Legend ; but 
his sound principle that masses of men never accept either maxims 
or idols without something generous, rational, and worthy of our 
respect in the motives which sanctioned their acceptance, drew 
him naturally to this interpretation of Napoleon's position in the 
memory of France. The interpretation, if it be not historically 
justifiable, is at least dramatically true. It represents what 
Frenchmen were thinking of; and civilization will have taken one 
of its most enormous strides, when the citizens of each nation do 
not shrink from the duty of doing justice to the better mind of 
every other. 

The pamphlet winds up with Cobden's invariable moral, that 
instead of lavishing interest on foreign nations who neither seek 
nor need it, Englishmen will do better to turn their attention to 
the defects of their own social condition. " I have travelled 
much," he says, " and always with an eye to the state of the great 
majority, who everywhere constitute the toiling base of the social 
pyramid ; and I confess I have arrived at the conclusion that 
there is no country where so much is required to be done before 
the mass of the people become what it is pretended they are, what 
they ought to be, and what I trust they will yet be, as in England." 
The justice, the real patriotism, the hope, of these closing pages 
are all indeed admirable ; and the illustration from the history 
of the Irish famine of the possibility of equalling the soldier's 



404 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1853. 

bravery and devotion in other fields besides the field of battle, is 
one of the most striking passages in English prose, not only for 
the truth of its feeling, but for the energy, simplicity, and noble 
pathos of its expression. 1 

The pamphlet was published in the course of the ministerial 
crisis, during the formation of the new Coalition Ministry. 
Shortly afterwards, and almost immediately before the opening of 
the session under these changed auspices, Cobden attended for the 
fourth time the Peace Conference, which was on this occasion held 
at Manchester. He still nursed the honorable belief that the 
spread of sound information and reasonable arguments would 
suffice to stem the tide of national delusion, and he once more 
raised the old cry to which Manchester had in old days so briskly 
responded, for an army of lecturers and a deluge of tracts to coun- 
teract " the poison that was being infused into the minds of the 
people." He met a friend in the streets, who said to him, " You 
have come here at a very inopportune time for your Peace meet- 
ing, for everybody is in a panic, and thinks that you are wrong." 
Cobden manfully replied, that this was the very reason why they 
were there, precisely because there never was a time yet when it 
was so necessary for the Peace party to redouble its efforts. 

While he was at Manchester, Cobden found satisfaction in the 
reception which his pamphlet had at the hands both of his friends 
and of the public at large. If it did not work a great national 
conversion, at any rate it did not fall dead. Opinion decided 

1 "A famine fell upon nearly one half of a great nation. The whole world 
hastened to contribute money and food. But a few courageous men left their homes 
in Middlesex and Surrey, and penetrated to the remotest glens and bogs of the 
west coast of the stricken island, to administer relief with their own hands. To 
say that they found themselves in the valley of the shadow of death would be but 
an imperfect image ; they were in the charnel-house of a nation. Never since the 
fourteenth century did pestilence, the gaunt handmaid of famine, glean so rich a 
harvest. In the midst of a scene, which no field of battle ever equalled in danger, 
in the number of its slain or the sufferings of the surviving, these brave men moved 
as calm and undismayed as though they had been in their own homes. The popu- 
lation sank so fast that the living could not bury the dead ; half-interred bodies 
protrr.ded from the gaping graves ; often the wife died in the midst of her starving 
children, whilst the husband lay a festering corpse by her side. Into the midst of 
these horrors did our heroes penetrate, dragging the dead from the living with their 
own hands, raising the head of famishing infancy, and pouring nourishment into 
parched lips, from which shot fever-flames more deadly than a volley of musketry. 
Here was courage. No music strung the nerves ; no smoke obscured the imminent 
danger ; no thunder of artillery deadened the senses. It was cool self-possession 
and resolute will ; calculating risk and heroic resignation. And who were these 
brave men ? To what gallant corps did they belong ? Were they of the horse, foot, 
or artillery force ? They were Quakers from Clapham and Kingston ! If you 
would know what heroic actions they performed, you must inquire from those who 
witnessed them. You will not find them recorded in the volume of reports pub- 
lished by themselves — for Quakers write no bulletins of their victories. " — Cobden's 
Collected Writings, i. 494, 495. 



.Et.49.] THE PANIC OP 1853. 405 

against him for the hour, but that the question should have been 
regarded as an open one, was the first preliminary condition of 
the world coming round to his view. 

"Manchester, Jan. 27, 1853. {To Mrs. Cobden) — I am writing 
this in the Corn Exchange. This morning's meeting is only mod- 
erately attended, but I suppose we shall be better supported in 
the evening. Bright has been speaking very well. Brotherton is 
now speaking a very good sermon. By the way, Bright came up 
to me to-day when we met, and exclaimed, 'What a glorious 
pamphlet you have written ! ' Henry Eichard, of the Peace 
Society, tells me that he sat up till two o'clock this morning read- 
ing it, and is delighted. Ireland, of the Examiner paper, tells me 
he sat up to read it, and gives also a good account of it. Bright 
says it must be printed for twopence, and got into every house in 
the kingdom. I see the Standard paper has commenced abusing 
it, and is contending that the war was begun by the French, and 
not ourselves. But the Whigs will be obliged to stand up for Fox 
and their party, and show the contrary." 

"Manchester, Jan. 31, 1853. ( „ ) — I can't tell what the 
Times means by reprinting all my pamphlet. Hitherto I don't 
see that their own comments have shaken it much, and I suppose 
therefore they are rather inclined to let it tell its own tale in a 
favorable way. But perhaps the abuse is all to come. However, 
it is an abundant recompense for the little night-work, and the 
occasional cold feet it cost me, to see it sent to all the corners of 
-the earth upon the Times' broad sheet. They may abuse it as 
they will, but after letting it be fairly read, I have no right to 
complain. If, as Doctor Johnson says, the best compliment to an 
author is to quote him, I must surely be satisfied when the whole 
of my pamphlet is quoted. I don't know what the effect of the 
Times reprinting it will be upon Kidgway's sale, but it will per- 
haps not be unfavorable. I have a long letter from Parkes, in 
which he is complimentary upon the pamphlet. The Liberal 
press is so taken aback by this slap in their face in the very midst 
of their anti-French howl, that they hardly know what to say to 
it. There is so much that they are bound to accept and support, 
that they hardly know how to oppose, and yet they don't feel dis- 
posed to approve if they can help it." 

The great event of the session was the first of those powerfully 
conceived and magnificently expounded financial schemes by 
which the new Chancellor of the Exchequer astonished and de- 
lighted the country. The little handful of Protectionists declared 
that it was a Budget for Manchester, and asked for how many 
years more Manchester was to dictate laws for the nation. The 
country gentlemen did not even yet realize that the centre of 
political power was slowly passing away, not for a moment only 



406 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1853. 

but forever, from the hereditary and territorial, to the commercial 
and industrial interests. They were not wrong in perceiving that 
this was the track along which Mr. Gladstone was now following 
Sir Eobert Peel. In criticising this great Budget, Cobden naturally 
pressed his constant point of the importance of reduced expendi- 
ture as the true key to financial readjustment ; and he pointed 
out that extravagance in this direction would assuredly fall upon 
property rather than commerce, as successive remissions of indirect 
taxation were inevitable. But he was particularly pleased with 
the imposition of the legacy duty upon real property, and de- 
scribed Mr. Gladstone's Budget as bold and honest. 1 On another 
subject he found himself in direct opposition to the Government. 
Mr. Milner Gibson brought forward his resolutions upon the 
various duties that stood in the way of a cheap press. He was 
supported in this attempt against the taxes on knowledge by 
Mr. Disraeli and his friends, and in the end he defeated Mr. Glad- 
stone on the advertisement duty. The battle was not won for 
three years to come ; and after the victory was achieved, the cheap 
newspapers which it allowed to come into existence hardly fulfilled 
all at once the political hopes which Cobden and the Manchester 
school expected. But that fact made no difference in their con- 
viction that good must ultimately come from the abundant diffu- 
sion of information, and the constant threshing and sifting of 
opinion by daily discussion. 

One incident at this time was like a ray of hope to Cobden. 
A large number of bankers and traders in the City of London 
went on a deputation to the Emperor of the French, practically 
to repudiate the language of the panic-mongers, and to express 
their desire for the continuance of relations of cordiality and good- 
will between the two countries. Unfortunately, a train was now 
being laid in Eastern Europe which, before many months, had 
put an end to the panic of a French invasion, but brought some- 
thing more mischievous than the panic in its stead. Cobden at 
this instant no more foresaw the war which was as yet only a 
cloud as of a man's hand on the horizon, than it was foreseen by 
the responsible statesmen in office. He passed the summer peace- 
ably in Sussex, where he was superintending the building of his 
new house at Dunford. His wife and family were at Bognor, and 
he passed his time between the two houses. Mrs. Cobden used 
to bring him in a carriage as far as the Duke of Kichmond's Park, 
and then he trudged across Goodwood Downs and over the unen- 
closed country to Heyshott. His thoughts meanwhile incessantly 
revolved round the concerns of public policy. He compiled a 
lucid and forcible exposure of the origin of the Burmese War, in 

i April 28. 



JEt.49.] THE PANIC OF 1853. 407 

which, besides laying bare its naked arrogance, injustice, and folly, 
he predicted the mischief that such exploits must inevitably one 
day inflict on Indian finance. An expedition to a Peace Confer- 
ence at Edinburgh, and a visit to Oxford, were the only two breaks 
in his solitude. 

" Bognor, Sept. 19, 1853. {To Mr. McLaren) — You are going 
to do a very good but courageous act in giving your countenance 
to the Peace Conference. Nowhere has the movement fewer 
partisans than in Scotland, and the reason is obvious — first be- 
cause your heads are more combative than even the English, 
which is almost a phrenological miracle ; and secondly, the system 
of our military rule in India has been widely profitable to the 
middle and upper classes in Scotland, who have had more than 
their numerical proportion of its patronage. Therefore the military 
party is very strong in your part of the kingdom. In this Peace 
Conference movement, we have not the same clear and definable 
principle on which to take our stand, that we had in our League 
agitation. There are in our ranks those who oppose all war, even 
in self-defence ; those who do not go quite so far, and yet oppose 
war on religious grounds in all cases but in self-defence ; and 
there are those who from politico-economical and financial con- 
siderations are not only the advocates of peace, but also of a 
diminution of our costly peace establishments. Amongst the 
latter class I confess I rank myself. .... We cannot disguise 
from ourselves that the military spirit pervades the higher and 
more influential classes of this country ; and that the Court aris- 
tocracy, and all that is aping the tone of the latter, believe that 
their interests, privileges, and even their very security are bound 
up in the maintenance of the ' Horse Guards.' Hence the very 
unfashionable character of our movement, and hence the difficulty 

of inducing influential persons to attend our meetings If 

we add to all this that the character of the English people is 
arrogant, dictatorial, and encroaching towards foreigners ; that we 
are always disposed to believe that other nations are preparing to 
attack England ; it must be apparent that in seeking to diminish 
our warlike establishments, we have to encounter as tough an 
opposition as we had in our attack on the corn monopoly, whilst 
we look in vain for that powerful nucleus of support which gave 
us hopes in the latter struggle of an eventual triumph. The 
tactics of the enemy have been hitherto cunning enough. The soul 
of the peace movement is the Quaker sentiment* against all war. 
Without the stubborn zeal of the Friends, there would be no 
Peace Society and no Peace Conference. But the enemy takes 
good care to turn us all into Quakers, because the Non-Eesistance 
principle puts us out of court as practical politicians of the present 
day. Our opponents insist on it that we wish to totally disarm, 



408 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1853. 

and leave ourselves at the mercy of Louis Napoleon and the 
French ; nay, they say we actually invite them to come and 
invade us." 

" Nov. 9. (To Mr. Bright?) — I can give you no information or 
suggestion about Eeform. It seems as if the Turkish question 
this year, like the French Invasion of the last, will serve to divert 
the public mind from home questions. And this, in my view, is 
one of the great evils of our system of foreign intervention. But 
I must say we cannot charge it upon the aristocracy, or the execu- 
tive, as a bait thrown to the whale. The so-called radicals of the 
old school are more to blame. And this brings me to remark 
that in calling for Eeform of Parliament, the Eadical party (so 
called) have no policy to offer as the promised fruits of another 
Eeform Bill. When the Whigs headed the former cry in 1830, 
they promised retrenchment, peace, non-intervention, and all kinds 
of practical benefits. They have, no doubt, proved themselves to 
have been to a large extent impostors, but now the Eadicals (I 
speak of those who are anything better than Whigs, and yet not 
of the Manchester School) have contrived to identify themselves 
with an absurd policy, which actually precludes the possibility of 
any appreciable reduction of expenditure, and puts them out of 
court as complainants against the aristocracy for their former 
system of foreign intervention, and the debts and misgovernment 
which have grown out of it. In fact, those Eadicals who abuse 
us for resisting the invasion humbug and the Eastern question 
humbug, do not seem to perceive how they have been whitewashing 
all the doings of our aristocracy from 1688 to the present time ; 
and not only so, but like the red-republican writers and orators 
on the Continent, they have contrived to give quiet people of 
property the notion that extreme liberalism means more wars, 
increased armaments, and greater burdens of taxation. Add to 
this, that Mr. Baines and a large party of Dissenters, the very 
salt of liberalism, have managed to snatch away from us more 
than half of our old cry of ' National Education,' and you see what 
a mess we are in for want of a Eadical policy to inspire the great 
supine public with some hopes of advantage from a further reform 
of Parliament. 

" Nov. 22. ( „ ) — Yesterday I got a few lines from Moles- 
worth, asking me what I thought ought to be done in the new 
Eeform Bill. I have replied that the Ballot must be had ; but 
that he cannot carry it in the Cabinet at present; that the sup- 
pression of the little boroughs is a sine qua non of any approxi- 
mation to any fair system of representation ; but that whatever 
Lord John may consent to do, I trust he will never agree to the 
principle of finality on the Franchise question, by which more 
than five millions of adult males are to be stigmatized as un- 



jEr.49.] THE PANIC OF 1853. 409 

worthy of any share in the government of the country. Is this a 
time for such a retrograde policy, when America and the Colonies 
are beckoning away our population to a higher economical and 
political fate ? It is true the masses in this country are badly led 
and poorly informed, and I fear possess less power to influence 
the Legislature than at any previous time; and probably they 
have not even the same interest as of old in the theory of a rep- 
resentative system. But if this all be true, so much the worse 
for us all, for the lot of the millions will be the fate of the 
country. Without the cordial sympathy and co-operation of the 
masses, our electoral system will become as soulless a thing as 
that which lately existed in France." 

"London, Dec. 14, 1853. (To F. W. Cobden.) — I got back 
here yesterday from Oxford, where I spent a most agreeable time. 
Instead of a monastery, the University is rather a great nest of 
clubs, where everybody knows everybody, and all are anxious to 
have a stranger of any note to break the monotony of their lives. 
I might have lived at free quarters for weeks amongst them. 
The best of fare, plenty of old port and sherry, and huge fires, 
seem the chief characteristics of all the colleges. No bad recom- 
mendation you will say in December. As for the education it 
is, according to Dr. Heldenmaier, ' the largest investment for the 
smallest return of all the academies of the world ! ' But after 
seeing some of the examinations I am inclined to think there 
is a greater effort required to face the ordeal than we generally 
suppose." 

By the end of the year an extraordinary change had at last 
taken place in the political sky, which Cobden described in his 
characteristic style years 'afterwards. " Let us suppose an in- 
valid," he said, 1 "to have been ordered, for the benefit of his 
health, to make the voyage to Australia and back. He left Eng- 
land in the month of February or March. The militia was pre- 
paring for duty ; the coasts and dockyards were being fortified ; 
the navy, army, and artillery were all in course of augmentation ; 
inspectors of artillery and cavalry were reported to be busy on 
the southern coast ; deputations from railway companies, it was 
said, had been waiting on the Admiralty and Ordnance, to ex- 
plain how rapidly the commissariat and military stores could be 
transported from the Tower to Dover or Portsmouth ; and the 
latest paragraph of news from the Continent was that our neigh- 
bors on the other side of the Channel were practising the em- 
barkation and disembarkation of troops by night. He left home 
amidst all these alarms and preparations for a French invasion. 
After an absence of four or five months, during which time he 

1 In The Three Panics: An Historical Episode (1862): Collected Writings, 
ii. 269. 



410 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1854. 

had no opportunity of hearing more recent news from Europe, 
he steps on shore at Liverpool, and the first newspaper he sees 
informs him that the English and French fleets are lying side by 
side in Besika Bay. An impending naval engagement between 
the two Powers is naturally the idea that first occurs to him ; but 
glancing at the leading article of the journal, he learns that Eng- 
land and France have entered into an alliance, and that they are 
on the eve of commencing a sanguinary war against Eussia." 



CHAPTEE XXIV. 

THE CRIMEAN WAR. 

At the end of May, 1853, Cobden had described to his brother 
that there was a good deal of uneasiness at headquarters about 
Turkish affairs. "The Cabinet," he said, "has been divided almost 
to a split upon the question of more or less direct interference on 
our part. The Peelites and Molesworth are the least disposed for 
intervention. The Whigs and Palmerston are for the old stereo- 
typed phrases of Integrity of the Turkish Empire, Balance of 
Power, etc. They are words without meaning, the mere echoes 
of the past, and so are admirably suited for the mouths of senile 
Whiggery." By the end of the year, owing to a series of causes 
which are now well understood, the relations of Eussia to the 
two Western Powers had been allowed to fall into an extremely 
dangerous position. Cobden's account of the state of the Govern- 
ment was unfortunately correct. The Cabinet was divided, and 
that came to pass which always happens in such circumstances. 
The section which had the strongest and most definite convictions 
won the day. This was the section practically headed by Lord 
Palmerston, and supported by the great influence of Lord John 
Eussell. Instead of trying to know the facts of the condition of 
Turkey, these two Ministers rested upon the old phrases which 
Cobden so truly described. Nor had either of them, again, a 
well-conceived notion, as Sir Eobert Peel had, of the function of 
diplomacy in preventing strife. Diplomacy in their hands always 
meant either veiled menace or tart lecturing, instead of being the 
great, the difficult, the beneficent art, which it has been in the 
hands of its worthiest masters, of so reconciling interests, sooth- 
ing jealous susceptibilities, allaying apprehensions, organizing 
influences, inventing solutions, that the world may move with 
something like steadiness along the grooves of deep pacific policy, 



Mt. 50.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 411 

instead of tossing on a viewless sea of violence and passion. 
If this ideal had prevailed, nobody would have sanctioned the 
despatch of a British Minister to Constantinople who was the 
bitter personal enemy of the Czar. The Peelites, on the other 
hand, had strong general leanings towards non-intervention, but 
not sufficiently definite to give them energy and determination in 
working out a policy that should avert war. Then the tide of 
popular passion rose with extraordinary rapidity. The tardiness 
of the diplomatists gave time for all that deep anger with which 
the people of England had watched the Czar's proceedings in 
Hungary five years before, to burst forth with a vehemence that 
soon became uncontrollable. The statesmen who ought to have 
exercised a counteracting control over it, were hurried off their 
feet. Lord John Eussell and Lord Palmerston were rivals for 
popularity, and neither could endure to surrender the prize to 
the other by making a stand against the public frenzy. The 
consequence was that England became the cat's-paw of Austria, 
Prussia, and the Emperor of the French. 1 

War was declared in the spring of 1854. Before the summer 
of 1855 an extraordinary series of changes took place. The 
Coalition Government had fallen to pieces, Lord Palmerston had 
become Prime Minister, the Peelites had resigned, Lord John 
Eussell had resigned and returned and resigned again. These 
confused and distracting retreats, one after another, of the states- 
men who had so diligently fanned the flame of warlike passion, 
filled the country with a perplexed exasperation. It would in- 
deed be difficult for the historian to find in our annals a more 
remarkable exhibition of political heedlessness, administrative in- 
competency, and personal incoherence than marked the fifteen 
months between the declaration of war, and the second retire- 
ment of Lord John Eussell. Never was confidence in public men 
more profoundly and universally shaken. It was now that Cob- 
den made a declaration of a kind seldom heard from politicians : 
" I look back," he said, " with regret on the vote which changed 
Lord Derby's G-overnment ; I regret the result of that motion, for 
it has cost the country a hundred millions of treasure, and be- 
tween thirty and forty thousand good lives." 

It is not difficult to believe that at the time of the Vienna Con- 
ference (1855) Lord Palmerston felt that the continuance of the 
war was required by domestic emergencies. Strong language was 
heard at public meetings about the aristocracy. The newspapers 
talked very freely about Prince Albert. The cry for inquiry was 
so passionate that Lord Palmerston was obliged to assent to the 
Sevastopol Committee two or three days after he had expressly 

1 We must remember that even the modern Road-to-india argument for the 
defence of Turkey had not then been invented. 



412 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1854. 

refused his assent. If peace had been made at Vienna, the nation 
would have discovered the spurious pleas on which the war had 
been begun. Its temper was dangerous, and Lord Palmerston 
may well have seen the risks to much that he valued, if that 
temper were balked. 

When we look back upon the affairs of that time, we see that 
there were two policies open. Lord Palmerston's was one, the 
Manchester policy was the other. If we are to compare Lord 
Palmerston's statesmanship and insight in the Eastern Question 
with that of his two great adversaries, it is hard, in the light of 
all that has happened since, to resist the conclusion that Cobden 
and Mr. Bright were right, and Lord Palmerston was disastrously 
wrong. It is easy to plead extenuating circumstances for the 
egregious mistakes in Lord Palmerston's policy about the Eastern 
Question, the Suez Canal, and some other important subjects ; but 
the plea can only be allowed after it has been frankly recognized 
that they really were mistakes, and that the abused Manchester 
School exposed and avoided them. Lord Palmerston, for instance, 
asked why the Czar could not be " satisfied, as we all are, with 
the progressively liberal system of Turkey." : Cobden, in his 
pamphlet twenty years before, insisted that this progressively lib- 
eral system of Turkey had no existence. 2 Which of these two 
propositions was true, may' be left to the decision of those who 
lent to the Turk many millions of money on the strength of Lord 
Palmerston's ignorant and delusive assurances. It was mainly 
owing to Lord Palmerston, again, that the efforts of the war were 
concentrated at Sebastopol. Sixty thousand English and French 
troops, he said, with the co-operation of the fleets, would take 
Sebastopol in six weeks. Cobden gave reasons for thinking very 
differently, and urged that the destruction of Sebastopol, even 
when it was achieved, would neither inflict a crushing blow on 
Eussia, nor prevent future attacks upon Turkey. Lord Palmer- 
ston's error may have been intelligible and venial ; nevertheless, 
as a fact, he was in error and Cobden was not, and the error cost 
the nation one of the most unfortunate, mortifying, and absolutely 
useless campaigns in English history. 3 Cobden held that if we 
were to defend Turkey against Eussia, the true policy was to use 
our navy, and not to send a land force to the Crimea. Would 
any serious politician now be found to deny it ? We might pro- 
long the list of propositions, general and particular, which Lord 
Palmerston maintained and Cobden traversed, from the beginning 

: i See Mr. Ashley's Life, ii. 280, 281. 2 See above, Chapter IV. 

s The Sebastopol Inquiry Committee reported that the administration which 
ordered the expedition had no adequate information as to the forces in the Crimea ; 
that they were ignorant of the strength of the fortresses to be attacked, and the 
resources of the territory to be invaded. 



Mr. 50.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 413 

to the end of the Eussian War. There is not one of these propo- 
sitions in which later events have not shown that Cobden's knowl- 
edge was greater, his judgment cooler, his insight more penetrating 
and comprehensive. The bankruptcy of the Turkish Govern- 
ment, the further dismemberment of its empire by the Treaty of 
Berlin, the abrogation of the Black Sea Treaty, have already done 
something to convince people that the two chiefs of the Manches- 
ter School saw much further ahead in 1854 and 1855 than men 
who had passed all their lives in foreign chanceries and the pur- 
lieus of Downing Street. 

It is startling to look back upon the bullying contempt which 
the man who was blind permitted himself to show to the men 
who could see. The truth is, that to Lord Palmerston it was still 
incomprehensible and intolerable that a couple of manufacturers 
from Lancashire should presume to teach him foreign policy. 
Still more offensive to him was their introduction of morality into 
the mysteries of the Foreign Office. Before the opening of the ses- 
sion of 1854, he presided at a banquet given at the Eeform Club to 
Sir Charles Napier on his departure to take command of the fleet 
in the Baltic. In proposing success to the guest of the evening, 
he made a speech in that vein of forced jocularity with which 
elderly gentlemen give the toast of the bride and bridegroom at a 
wedding breakfast When Parliament assembled, Mr. Bright re- 
monstrated 1 against the levity of these jokes and stories on the 
lips of a responsible statesman at so grave and ominous a moment. 
The war, he said, might be justifiable or not, but it must in any 
case be an awful thing to any nation that engaged in it. Lord 
Palmerston began his reply by referring to Mr. Bright as " the 
honorable and reverend gentleman." Cobden rose to call him to 
order for this flippant and unbecoming phrase. Lord Palmerston 
said he would not quarrel about words. Then he went on to say 
that he thought it right to tell Mr. Bright that his opinion was a 
matter of entire indifference, and that he treated his censure with 
the most perfect indifference and contempt. On another occasion 
he showed the same unmannerliness to Cobden himself. Cobden 
had said that under certain circumstances he would fight, or, if he 
could not fight, he would work for the wounded in the hospitals. 
"Well," said Lord Palmerston in reply, with the sarcasm of a 
schoolboy's debating society, " there are many people in this coun- 
try who think that the party to which he belongs should go im- 
mediately into a hospital of a different kind, and which I shall 
not mention." 2 This refined irony was a very gentle specimen of 

1 March 13, 1854. 

2 June 4, 1855. Mr. Disraeli on one occasion during this period complained of 
the "patrician hullying of the treasury bench," and amid great cheering told Lord 
Palmerston that he had used language which was not to be expected "from one 



414 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1854. 

the insult and contumely which was poured upon Cobden and Mr. 
Bright at this time. " The British nation," said Lord Palmerston, 
in a private letter, " is unanimous in this matter ; I say unani- 
mous, for I cannot reckon Cobden, Bright, and Co. for anything." 1 
Nobody who turns over a file of newspapers for this period, or the 
pages of Hansard, or the letters of Cobden and Mr. Bright to one 
another, will deny that Lord Palmerston's estimate was perfectly 
correct. 

It is impossible not to regard the attitude of the two objects of 
this vast unpopularity as one of the most truly admirable spec- 
tacles in our political history. The moral fortitude, like the po- 
litical wisdom of these two strong men, .begins to stand out with 
a splendor that already recalls the great historic types of states- 
manship and patriotism. Even now our heartfelt admiration and 
gratitude goes out to them as it goes out to Burke for his lofty 
and manful protests against the war with America and the oppres- 
sion of Ireland, and to Charles Fox for his bold and strenuous 
resistance to the war with the first French Bepublic. They had, 
as Lord Palmerston said, the whole world against them. It was 
not merely the august personages of the Court, nor the illustrious 
veterans in Government and diplomacy, nor the most experienced 
politicians in Parliament, nor the powerful journalists, nor the 
men versed in great affairs of business. It was no light thing to 
confront even that solid mass of hostile judgment. But besides 
all this, Cobden and Mr. Bright knew that the country at large, 
even their trusty middle and industrious classes, had turned their 
faces resolutely and angrily away from them. Their own great 
instrument, the public meeting, was no longer theirs to wield. 
The army of the Nonconformists, which has so seldom been found 
fighting on the wrong side, was seriously divided. The Badicals 
were misled by their recollection of Poland and Hungary into 
thinking that war against Eussia must be war for freedom. 

Men who had come to politics in the spirit of philosophers or 
prophets, might have cared very little for this terrible unanimity 
of common opinion. But Cobden and Mr. Bright had never 
affected to be disinterested spectators of the drama of national 
affairs. They had formed strong and definite convictions, but 
they had formed them with reference to the actual condition of 
things, and not in the air. They were neither doctrinaires nor 
fanatics. They had always taken up the position of reasonable 
actors, and talked the language of practical politicians. A prac- 
tical politician without followers is as unfortunate as a general 
who has lost sight of his army. They had habitually appealed 

who is not only the leader of the House of Commons — which is an accident of life 
— but who is also a gentleman." — July 16, 1855. 
1 Mr. Ashley's Life, ii. 325. 



Mt.50.-] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 415 

against aristocratic caste, against monopolist selfishness, against 
journalistic levity, against parliamentary insincerity, to the sover- 
eign tribunal of Public Opinion. They had lived and worked on 
opinion, they had placed their whole heart in it, they had won 
their great victory by it. This divinity now proved as false an idol 
as the rest. Public opinion was bitterly and impatiently hostile and 
intractable. Mr. Bright was burnt in effigy. Cobden, at a meet- 
ing in his own constituency, after an energetic vindication of his 
opinions, saw resolutions carried against him. Every morning 
they were reviled in half the newspapers in the country as ene- 
mies of the commonwealth. They were openly told that they 
were traitors, and that it was a pity that they could not be pun- 
ished as traitors. 

A more mortifying position can hardly be imagined. Mortify- 
ing as it was, it never shook their steadfastness for a moment. 
War could never be for them a mere commonplace incident of 
policy. If the necessity for it was anything short of being irre- 
sistible, war was a crime and the parent of crimes. They now 
asked where was the necessity, and what was the justification. 
The danger of the Eussian power, they said, was a phantom. The 
expediency of permanently upholding the Ottoman rule in Europe 
was an absurdity. The drawbacks of non-intervention were re- 
mote and vague, and could neither be weighed nor described in 
accurate terms. This is their own language. With such a view, 
it was impossible that they could do otherwise than hold sternly 
aloof. " You must excuse me," said Mr. Bright, in reply to the 
Mayor of Manchester, who had invited him to attend a meeting 
for the Patriotic Fund, "if I cannot go with you; I will have no 
part in this terrible crime. My hands shall be unstained with 
the blood that is being shed. The necessity of maintaining them- 
selves in office may influence an Administration ; delusion may 
mislead a people ; Vattel may afford you a law and a defence ; 
but no respect I have for men who form a Government, no regard 
I have for going with the stream, and no fear of being.deemed 
wanting in patriotism, shall influence me in favor of a policy 
which in my conscience I believe to be as criminal before God, as 
it is destructive of the true interests of my country." * 

With equal firmness and equity, when disasters came and peo- 
ple were beginning to talk at meetings against the aristocracy and 
the Crown, Cobden would not consent to remove the blame of 
disaster from the nation itself. " So far as I am concerned," he 
said, "I will never truckle so low to the popular spirit of the 
moment as to join in any cry which shall divert the mass of the 
people from what I believe should be their first thought and con- 

1 Written in October, 1854. The whole of this admirable letter is given at the 
end of the first volume of Mr. Bright's Speeches. 



416 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1854. 

sideration, namely, how far they themselves are responsible for the 
evils which may fall upon the land, and how far they should be- 
gin at home before they begin to find fault with others." 1 

It has often been asked how it happened that these two stren- 
uous, eloquent, logical, well-informed men, with their great popular 
prestige and their consummate experience in framing arguments 
that should tell, failed so absolutely at this crisis in making any 
impression on the minds of their countrymen. The historian of 
the Crimean War, in a classic passage, 2 has said that the answer 
is very simple. They could make no stand because they had for- 
feited their hold upon the ear of the country by the immoderate 
and indiscriminate way in which they had put forward some of 
the more extravagant doctrines of the Peace Party. They had no 
weight as opponents of a particular war, because they were known 
to be against almost all war. In all this there is much that is 
true and excellently stated. We may certaicly demur to the 
assertion that Cobden had as a matter of fact put forward the doc- 
trines of the Peace party in immoderate terms. A careful exam- 
ination of his speeches both in the House and in the country 
shows that he had always advocated the principles of non-inter- 
vention, not on grounds of sentiment, philanthropy, or religion, 
but strictly in the dialect of policy and business. The country, 
however, did not at that time perceive this. People are too much 
occupied, and they are moreover specially disinclined by national 
temperament, to examine an innovating doctrine with minute and 
literal precision. The virtues of Englishmen lie very close to their 
vices. The same dogged tenacity with which they encounter ob- 
stacles in the great material and political tasks which they have 
set themselves throughout their adventurous history all over the 
world, binds them closely to their prejudices. The same invin- 
cible stubbornness, as Haydon said, which beat the French at 
Waterloo, makes them prepare to receive cavalry at every innova- 
tion. They eye every reform as they would an enemy's cuirassier. 
Above all, though full of religious sentiment, in every reference to 
morality in practical politics they instantly suspect cant. 3 Cob- 
den knew all this as well as anybody. But what he also knew 
was that the doctrine could only be made to take a hold on men 
by strenuous and persistent advocacy, even at the risk of this 
advocacy being misunderstood. Events showed in the long run 
that his tactics were prudent. It was by the strenuousness and 
persistency of himself and Mr. Bright, that they at last succeeded 
in making that gross and broad impression which it was their 
object to produce. They were routed on the question of the Cri- 
mean War, but it was the rapid spread of their principles which 



j ii. 54. June 5, 1855. 3 Memoirs, ii. 273, 274. 

2 Mr. Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea, vol. ii. chapter vii. pp. 69-71. 



Mi. 50.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 417 

within the next twenty years made intervention impossible in 
the Franco- Austrian War, in the American War, in the Danish 
War, in the Franco-German War, and, above all, in the war be- 
tween Bussia and Turkey which broke out only the other day. 

On the whole, however, it is perfectly clear that the failure of 
the two Manchester leaders to affect opinion at this time was due 
to the simplest of all possible causes. The public had worked 
itself into a mood in which the most solid reasoning, the most 
careful tenderness of prejudice, the most unanswerable expostula- 
tions, were all alike unavailing. The incompetency of one part 
of the Ministry, and the recklessness of the other part, pushed 
us over the edge. When that has once happened, a peace party 
has no longer any chance. Cobden described this some years 
later in connection with the civil war in America. " It is no use 
to argue," he said, " as to what is the origin of the war, and no 
use whatever to advise the disputants. From the moment the 
first shot is fired, or the first blow is struck in a dispute, then fare- 
well to all reason and argument ; you might as well reason with 
mad dogs as with men when they have begun to spill each 
other's blood in mortal combat. I was so convinced of the 
fact during the Crimean War, I was so convinced of the utter 
uselessness of raising one's voice in opposition to war when it 
has once begun, that I made up my mind that so long as I was in 
political life, should a war again break out between England and 
a great Power, I would never open my mouth upon the subject 
from the time the first gun was fired until the peace was made." * 

During these two years of disaster and mistake, Cobden could 
not do more than raise protests from time to time as opportunity 
served. The House of Commons was much more tolerant than 
larger and less responsible assemblies. Describing the reception 
of his speech against the Ministerial policy at the opening of the 
Session of 1854, Cobden wrote to his wife : — " No enthusiasm, 
of course ; — that I did not expect ; but there was a feeling of 
interest throughout the House, which is not bumptious or warlike 
to the extent I expected, and not disposed to be insolent to the 
' peace party.' In fact, I find many men in the Tory party agree- 
ing with me. After I spoke. Molesworth took me aside and said 
he and Gladstone thought I never spoke better." The failure, 
again, of the negotiations at Vienna in the summer of 1855, and 
the consequent perseverance in the war, inspired him with one of 
his most forcible speeches, and subsequent events have made it 
more completely unanswerable now than it was even then. It is 
still worthy of being read by any one who cares to know how 
strong a case the Manchester School was able to make. 2 " The 

1 Speeches, ii. 3H. Oct 29, 1862. 2 SpeecJies, ii. June 5, 1855. 

27 



418 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1855. 

House was very full," Cobden wrote to Mrs. Cobden on the fol- 
lowing day, " and sat and stood it out most attentively. Not one 
breath of disapprobation, and a fair share of support in the way 
of cheers. I was complimented by many members after it was 
over. Amongst others, Lytton Bulwer walked across the House 
to offer his congratulations. All this is not fit to be repeated at 
your breakfast-table as coming from me. Sidney Herbert remarked 
that it carried him back again to my old Corn Law speeches ; 
and Lord Elcho (formerly Mr. Charteris) has just this moment 
come to whisper in my ear that he considers my speech better 
than Gladstone's. The roar of laughter against Molesworth at 
my ' black and curly ' allusion disconcerted him sadly. I met 
Molesworth in the cloak-room on leaving the House. "We ex- 
changed a bantering word or two. ' How are you ? ' said he, 
with a grim effort at the facetious. ' How are you ? ' was my 
reply. After turning from me he fell plump into Bright' s hands, 
who was waiting for me, and who rallied him unmercifully, tell- 
ing him he had not had half his deserts, and that he had some- 
thing yet in store for him himself. Molesworth tried to be 
audacious, and told Bright, 'You are just as bad as I am.' Lord 
John will get sadly mauled before the end of it. The part I 
brought out respecting his signing away the rights of the Walla- 
chians and Moldavians will be flung in his face again. Boebuck 
says he shall tell him that he ought to be ashamed to show his 
face in the House after affirming such a doctrine." 

After reading this speech, so full of knowledge and compre- 
hensive reasoning and of strong moderation as distinguished 
from the same quality when it is weak, we can understand 
that, even in the midst of their anger against Cobden and 
Mr. Bright, people began to feel secret misgivings that they 
might be right after all. " There is a growing mistrust," Cobden 
wrote to Mrs. Cobden about this time, " of the durability of Palm- 
erston's Ministry. I have heard from several quarters that if I 
and Bright had not been so ' wrong ' on the war we should cer- 
tainly have been forced into the Ministry. Two letters from 
Delane, the Editor of the Times, written to friends of his, but not 
intended for my eye, have been put into my hands, in which this 
sentiment is expressed that Bright and I must have been Minis- 
ters if we had not shelved ourselves by our peace principles." 

Until the end of 1§55 the prospects of peace seemed very 
remote. Lord John Bussell described the state of things with 
characteristic concision in a letter to Cobden. " The peace of 
Amiens," he said (Nov. 12, 1855), " a very disadvantageous peace 

— gave universal joy. The peace of 1763, a very glorious peace 

— gave general dissatisfaction. The people of this country are 
not tired of war, and do not much feel the sacrifices you speak of. 



jfir.51.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 419 

When they are tired, they will blame any Minister who does not 
make peace." The French Emperor was in a similar predicament. 
Marshal Vaillant told him that he would not answer for the 
French army if it were brought home without laurels. In this 
unpromising situation Cobden sat down to write a pamphlet, 
which was published at the beginning of 1856, What Next — and 
Next ? 1 Without going into the question of the origin of the 
war, Cobden made it his object " to give some facts about Eussia 
with a view to prevent the self-confidence into which people fell 
of humbling that Power on her own soil." " I suppose people 
won't read it," he said, " but my conscience will be at rest." 

It now remains to give some of Cobden's correspondence at this 
time, principally from that with Mr. Bright. 

" Midhurst, Sept. 14, 1854. (To Mr. Bright.) — I am in the 
midst of the removal of my books, and for the last few days have 
been 'up to my chin in dusty tomes and piles of old pamphlets, a 
cartload of which I am consigning to the hay-loft for waste 
paper. Fortunately for me my mind has therefore been little 
occupied on public affairs, which I confess afford me but little 
food for pleasant reflection. 

" I am as much satisfied as ever that we have followed a right 
course on the war question. It must be right for us, because we 
have followed our own conscientious convictions. But in propor- 
tion as we are devoted to our principles must be our regret to see 
so little prospect of. their being adopted as the practical guide of 
our foreign policy. It is no use blinking the fact that there are 
not a score of men in the House, and but few out of the ranks of 
the Friends in the country, who are ready to take their stand upon 
the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries. 
This is no reason why we should hold our peace ; but it shows 
that we have to begin at the beginning, by converting to our 
views that public opinion which is at present all but unanimously 
against us. 

" I sometimes regret that I omitted to call meetings in York- 
shire before the war began. As it is, we must wait results, which 
will be serious one way or another soon, if the expedition to Se- 
bastopol has been carried into effect. My own opinion is that if 
the Anglo-French army can make good a landing, it will be a 
match in the open field for three times its number of Eussian 
troops. But there are all the accidents of wind and weather. 
How Lord Aberdeen must have quaked at the sound of the equi- 
noctial gales which began blowing last night a week before they 
were due. The fate of the ministry quite as much as that of the 
generals hangs on the result. If, owing to the weather at sea, or 

1 Collected Writings, vol. ii. 



420 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1855. 

the climate on shore, or the dogged resistance of the Eussians 
behind their walls, the expedition should fail, there will be a cry 
for a change of government. The English Eadicals and Tories 
will alike demand ' victims ' to appease their wrath. If it succeed, 
no matter at what cost of life, the ministry will be saved." 

"Midhurst, Oct. 1, 1854. (To Mr. Bright.) — You ask when our 
turn will come. "When common sense and honesty are in the as- 
cendant, a day for me not very likely to be realized, as I am fifty, 
and not of a long-lived family. You have a better chance, but 
don't be too sanguine. It is very singular but true that if we look 
back to the originators and propagators of this Eussiaphobia, they 
have been almost without exception half-cracked people. I could 
give a list of them, including Urquhart, Atwood, &c. Unfortu- 
nately we live in an age when in this country at least mad people 
have still a very great power over other minds 

" I sometimes feel quite puzzled when I ask myself what result 
in the present struggle for Sebastopol would be the most likely to 
promote the end you and I desire to see, a distaste for war and a 
wish on all sides for peace ? Putting humanity and patriotism 
aside for the sake of argument, perhaps the best thing that could 
happen would be a long and sanguinary contest without decisive 
result, until the German powers stepped in to compel the ex- 
hausted combatants to come to terms. For whether the one or 
the other side win, I foresee great evils to follow. Let John Bull 
have a great military triumph, and we shall all have to take off 
our hats as we pass the Horse Guards for the rest of our lives. 
On the other hand, let the Czar's swollen pride be gratified and 
inflamed with victory, it will foster that spirit of military insolence 
which pervades everything in Eussia. But if neither could claim 
a decisive triumph, and both were thoroughly discouraged and 
disgusted with their sacrifices, they might all in future be equally 
disposed to be more peaceable. 

" It is scarcely possible to foresee any other result than this, 
unless upon the assumption that the Eussian Empire is a more 
thorough imposture than anybody has suspected. And yet, if the 
accounts be true, there does not seem to be a great force to protect 
Sebastopol, and all their Black Sea ships and arsenals, notwith- 
standing that the Government have had more than two months' 
notice from Lord John Eussell himself of our intention to strike a 
blow there. What an illustration it is of the weakness which ac- 
companies the acquisition of territory by mere military conquests 
on a large scale. We know that Eussia has more than 600,000 
effective troops, and yet if report be true she cannot concentrate 
50,000 for the defence of a vital point. Little Belgium could do 

more 

" But I cannot convince myself that we are to have an easy vie- 



2ET.61.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 421 

tory in the Crimea. I was reading last night the account of 
Bonaparte's Russian campaign. If the Russians fight behind 
their intrenchments now as they did at Borodino (where 70,000 
were put hors-de-combat), there will be wailing here before another 
month. I can't see anything in the tactics of the enemy in allow- 
ing our forces to land without molestation to warrant the confident 
tone of our cockney press. The Russians would have been fools 
to have brought their men under the fire of our ships' guns. By 
the way, Napoleon entered Moscow without opposition on the 
14th Sept., 1812, and we landed in the Crimea on the 14th Sept., 
1854. Some people may think this an evil omen. We shall soon 
be relieved from our suspense." 

To Mr. Bright. — " .... I have no news beyond what the 
papers give, which seems bad enough. The next thing will be, I 
suppose, an assault with the bayonet, to satisfy the morbid impa- 
tience of the public at home and the soldiery on the spot, and 
Heaven only can tell what the result may be. 

" I suspect from what oozes out that the Government have un- 
favorable foreboding's. This accounts for the fall on the Paris 
Bourse, where the effects of bad news are always felt first, owing 
to the stock-jobbers being more mixed up with the personnel of 
the Government than here. . A man who was at the Lord Mayor's 
banquet told me the ministers were looking very dejected. That 
they ought to be unhappy is certain ; and yet when we have 
helped to turn them out, as I should be very glad to do, we shall 
have clone little to avert a repetition of the evils of war until the 
public sentiment can be reached, for if a people will be ruled by 
phrases such as ' balance of power,' ' integrity and independence,' 
&c, when uttered solemnly by men in power, you may depend on 
it they will always find ' statesmen ' to take office on such easy 
terms. I do not know how it is to be done, but I am quite sure 
there is no security for anything better until we can teach the 
people a lesson of moderation and modesty in foreign affairs, 
and enlighten that almost Spanish or Chinese ignorance about 
everything going on abroad which characterizes the masses of our 
countrymen. 

" I am willing to incur any obloquy in telling the whole truth 
to the public as to the share they have had in this war, and it is 
better to face any neglect or hostility than allow them to persuade 
themselves that anybody but themselves are responsible for the 
war." 

"Midhurst, Jan. 5, 1855. {To Mr. Bright) — I agree with you 
that there is some change in the public mind upon the war ; but 
the more moderate tone is less to be attributed to pacific tenden- 
cies than to the lassitude which naturally follows a great excite- 
ment. There is about as much unsoundness as ever abroad about 



422 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1855. 

foreign affairs. A few exceptions scattered over the land have 
come to my knowledge since I spoke in the House. I have heard 
from a few parsons amongst others ; they are, I suppose, eccen- 
tricities who have not much weight. 

" The break-down of our aristocratic rulers, when their energies 
are put to the stress of a great emergency, is about the most con- 
solatory incident of the war. I am not sure that it will so far 
raise the middle class in their own esteem as to induce them to 
venture on the task of self-government. They must be ruled by 
lords. Even the Times is obliged to make the amende to the 
aristocratic spirit of the age by calling for that very ordinary but 
self-willed lord, the Governor-General of India, to come and save 
us. 1 But the discredit and the slaughter to which our patricians, 
civil and military, have been exposed, will go far to make real 
war unpopular with that influential class for another generation 
to come, whilst the swift retribution likely to fall on the Cabinet 
will tend to make Governments less warlike in future. As for 
the people, they have scarcely felt the effects of the war as yet, 
but they are rapidly developing themselves in diminished trade 
and increasing able-bodied pauperism, and augmented taxation 
will follow. 

" The most dishonest or most ' incapable and guilty ' feature in 
the conduct of the Government, to my judgment, has been their 
readiness to fall into the warlike humor of the public, and con- 
cealing from them the extent of the undertaking. Even Glad- 
stone has lent himself to the delusion that the people can be 
indulged with a cheap war. It is impossible to believe that the 
Ministry were so ignorant as to suppose that we could fight Eussia 
on her own territory, 3000 miles distant by sea, for 10,000,000^. 
But really I believe Palmerston or Lord John would have under- 
taken to do it by contract for as many shillings, rather than 
not have gained the sweet voice of the multitude twelve months 
since. 

" I observe what you say about the want of more co-operation 
amongst our friends .... in the House. What we really 
want is sympathy and support for our views out of doors. We 
have a far better hearing in Parliament than in the country. I 
defy you, from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, to find 
a mixed body of men in which you and I should be so well treated 
as we were on the last day of the session. It is the want of 
identity between the great public and ourselves on important arid 
engrossing questions of principle that leaves us in such an isolated 
position in the House. I am content to be as we are, with nothing 
but an approving conscience for the course we pursue. Not that 

1 Lord Dalhousie was now Governor-General. 



Mr. 51.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 423 

I am, as Parkes says, without ambition. If I had been where 
Sumner and Amasa Walker are, I should have set no bounds to 
my ambition ; but my judgment told me twenty years ago that if 
I aimed at office in this country, it must lead either to disap- 
pointment or an abandonment of objects which I cherish far 
before official rank, and therefore I preferred pioneering for my 
convictions to promotion at the expense of them." 

" January 10, 1855. (To Colonel Fitzmayer.) — I have again to 
thank you for your continued kindness in sending me the regular 
news of your siege operations. When I think of all the discomfort 
under which your letters are penned, I cannot too highly value 
such proofs of your friendship 

" Before this reaches you, the news will have been carried to the 
Crimea that negotiations for peace have been opened on the basis 
of the four points. It remains to be seen whether the Czar is in 
earnest, and whether the allies enter in a bond fide spirit upon the 
deliberations. I am inclined to believe that all the Governments 
are heartily sick of the war, and therefore shall not be surprised 
if a peace be speedily arranged. But in the mean time our news- 
papers must swagger a good deal over the Czar, and persuade their 
readers that we have subjected him to great humiliations. I con- 
fess, however, that I do not see the grounds for this boastful self- 
glorification. It is true that you have beaten the Eussians in the 
field, but there is always the broad fact remaining that Sebas- 
topol is not taken. It is no fault of your brave army that the 
place is still holding out — the fact is we never ought to have 
made the plunge in the dark in the Crimea at all. Indeed, it has 
been admitted in the House by Lord John Eussell that both 
government and generals had been mistaken in their estimate of 
its strength. This confession ought to suffice to condemn the 
present Administration to dismissal from office ; for there can be 
no excuse for ignorance on a point which might have been very 
easily cleared up before the expedition sailed. I think I could 
have undertaken in June last to have obtained the most minute 
particulars as to the strength of Sebastopol for a few thousand 
pounds. 

" There are some points raised in your letter which I shall hope 
to be able to discuss with you at my fireside when you return 
again to England, for my wife and I trust you will honor us with 
a visit to this picturesque and secluded part of the country. But 
in the mean time I must be allowed to say in reference to your 
allusions to a regular standing army, that I am not opposed to the 
maintenance of a disciplined force to serve as a nucleus in case of 
war, around which the people might rally to defend their country. 
But there is hardly a case to be imagined or assumed in which I 
would consent to send out a body of land forces to fight the battles 



424 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1855. 

of the Continent ; and last of all would I agree to send such an 
expedition to the shores of Eussia. 

" There is now a general complaint that we allowed our army to 
fall to too low a standard in consequence of the cry of the finan- 
cial reformers for a reduction of the expenditure. I am bound to 
say that if this country adopts the policy of sending its armies to 
fight the Czar on his own territory, then it is bound to keep up a 
force commensurate with the magnitude of such an undertaking. 
We must become a military people like France and Austria. This 
will be contrary to our traditions, and quite incompatible with an 
economical government. I am not sure that constitutional free- 
dom can coexist with large standing armies. I know of no in- 
stance in which they have flourished together. However, we will 
adjourn the debate on this subject till we meet." 

" February 11, 1855. {To Mr. Bright) — You made an excellent 
speech at the Chamber of Commerce, which at the present moment 
will compel many men to listen to your warnings who have hitherto 
been deaf to everything but the appeals to ' glory and honor.' - 

" Did you see Cornewall Lewis's speech ? It was a good sign 
coming from the Edinburgh Review. 

" But I can think of nothing else but the Derby -Disraeli ex- 
joosS ! 1 . . . . What can your friend Dizzy say or do in opposi- 
tion to the Government, after having agreed not merely to serve 
under Palmerston, but to sit in the same Cabinet with Gladstone 
and Sidney Herbert ! And what will our soft radicals say after 
the affectionate flirtation of Lord Derby with their great champion 
of democracy all over the world ? Lord D. seems to me to have 
played a clever game for the future, and is, I suppose, acting under 
the inspiration of such men as Lord Lonsdale in casting himself 
loose from all his old team and opening the door for fresh alliances. 
Lord Palmerston can't of course last many years, or perhaps 
months, and then the ' great Conservative party ' is the only one 
not used up. But what is to become of Disraeli ? He can't be 
first whilst Gladstone is either with him or against him, and he 
won't play second to anybody but Palmerston. Will it end in his 
going ambassador to Paris ? In the mean time he has to eat a 
good deal of dirt. 

" As for the Government, unless they put on fresh masks and 
dresses, we shall certainly think them the same gentlemen who got 
us into a ' foolish, just, and necessary war,' as Sidney Smith would 

1 " Lord Derby was sent for to form a government, and immediately sought the 
co-operation of Lord Palmerston, offering him the leadership of the House of Com- 
mons, which Mr. Disraeli was willing to waive in his favor; Offers were also made 
through him to Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Sidney Herbert." Ashley's Life of Lord 
Palmerston, ii. 304. "Derby," wrote Lord Palmerston to his brother, "felt con- 
scious of the incapacity of the greater portion of his party, and their unfitness 
to govern the country." 



Mr. 51.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 425 

call it, and then threw away the finest army we ever had for want 
of staff and generals. As for the exchange of Panmure for New- 
castle, we who have been behind the scenes know that the public 
gain nothing by that. Again and again I ask myself, in witness- 
ing the childish glee with which the press and public call for 
Palmerston to serve them — are we not a used-up nation ? Could 
any people not in its dotage look to such a quarter for a saviour ? 
However, it is a consolation that we shall soon see the bursting of 
that bubble which the cockney clacqueurs have been so industri- 
ously blowing for the last few years 

" As respects the prospect of peace, I am of opinion that Palm- 
erston will be anxious to steal from Aberdeen the credit of get- 
ting out of the war. Depend on it the court and aristocracy are 
more than ever anxious to put an end to hostilities. They have 
found for the first time that their prestige, privileges, and dearest 
interests are more endangered than those of any other class by a 
state of war. It will be a blessed advantage to us that hence- 
forth our best allies in the advocacy of peace principles will be in 
high quarters. My only doubt is whether Louis Napoleon has 
some sinister motives for continuing the war. I don't like the 
tone of Drouyn de L'Huy's notes to Prussia. They are novel in 
style, especially for so cautious and clever a diplomatist, and I 
learn from Faucher they are making a great and mischievous im- 
pression upon the public mind in Prussia. 

" For my part, I can't think of these things, and to what an 
extent we as a people are wrong in our alliances and tendencies, 
without most cynical misgivings respecting the future course of 
our foreign policy. There is positively no intelligence amongst 
the masses on such subjects to serve as a leverage in dealing with 
the abounding fallacies of the juveniles, who, fresh from college, 
' do ' this department of our periodical literature, and take either 
the line of our old aristocratic diplomacy in favor of the ' balance 
of power ' and dynastic alliances, or the more modern and equally 
unsound and mischievous line newly adopted by our so-called 
' democrats ' on behalf of Mazzini and the ' nationalities.' There 
is no out-of-doors support for the party of peace and non-inter- 
vention." 

" Midhurst, Sept. 30. (To Mr. Bright) — I think you will read 
the enclosed with interest. There is a description of what the 
writer witnessed at the hospital in Sebastopol, which surpasses 
everything I have read. The graphic account of the horses lying 
harnessed to the guns at the bottom of the clear blue water comes 
back to my mind's eye like a real picture. You will see that he 
speaks of our failure at the Eedan as arising solely from the fact 
of the men not following their officers to the assault. He is 
always on the side of the men, and he finds excuses for them at 



426 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1855. 

the expense of the officers. But the real solution of the disaster 
is that the troops were raw recruits — mere boys, and I expect 
that, after a little more recrimination between the parties con- 
cerned, the whole truth will come out, that, in the words of the 
Times correspondent, ' we are trusting the honor, reputation, and 
glory of Great Britain to undisciplined lads from the plough or 
the lanes of our towns and villages.' It will end in an exposure 
of the hollowness of all those demonstrations of the press and 
the public in favor of this just and necessary war — for it will 
come out that the bone and muscle of the country take no part 
in it, but leave the recruiting sergeant as best he can to kidnap 
mere children and carry them off to the shambles. 

" This sham must blow up, but the press and Palmerston are so 
interested in not telling the people that they must do something 
more than pass resolutions, write inflammatory articles, or preach 
incendiary sermons, — that they must in fact do the fighting as 
well as the shouting for war, — that I expect they will let matters 
go on till we are plunged into some deep humiliation and dis- 
grace. As it is, the French army are trying to soothe us with 
compliments so overdone that we cannot help seeing through the 
grimaces which accompany them. Depend on it, if the war 
goes on, men of sense will see that we must either have the con- 
scription, like our opponents and allies, to secure a fair represen- 
tation of the manhood of the country in the battle-field, or drop 
our bombastic posturing and come down to a level with the Sar- 
dinians, and be a mere contingent of the French army. The 
French will gradually, but with every possible protestation of 
respect, bring us to this. They are now acting almost independ- 
ently of us, and from this time we shall see more and more the 
difficulty of our maintaining an equality. 

"What is doing about the penny paper I 1 I hear from Sturge 

that he has doubts about . He speaks of and . 

I have the most perfect confidence in the good faith of these men, 
but if a precaution such as is contemplated be taken that the 
paper shall not go wrong, I should be inclined to say that it would 
be as well not to have a too enthusiastic peace man as its man- 
aging editor. The difficulty is to get a daily newspaper with a 
circulation of 30,000 established. If it be an expansion of the 
Herald of Peace, it will never be established as a newspaper — at 
least not this year. There must be a good deal of the wisdom of 
the serpent as well as the harmlessness of the dove to float such 

1 This refers to the establishment of the Morning Star. Cobden had no finan- 
cial interest in the venture, Mr. Sturge being a principal subscriber. It was under- 
stood that Cobden and Mr. Bright were to be consulted as to the policy of the new 
journal. As we shall see, this constant reference to them was so overdone that Cob- 
den himself warned the editor against it, — an instructive warning to leading poli- 
ticians who meddle with newspapers. 



Mi. 51.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 427 

a paper, and unless it can be established as a newspaper, it will 
not attain the object we have in view. What say you to this ? " 

"Aug. 6. {To Mr. Bright.) — What an atrocious article there 
is in the Athenaeum of last Saturday upon Tennyson's poems. 
War is in itself a blessing and the mother of blessings. We owe 
to it our great poets and men of genius. 1 It is quite clear, 
according to the writer, that there must have been a mistake in 
the record of Christ's preaching. It was war, not peace, he left 
for a legacy to man. How could he possibly bring peace into the 
world to corrupt and degrade it ? It is enthroning the devil in 
the place of the God of mercy, truth, love, and justice ; for what 
has war to do with these ? " 

" August 8, 1855. — .... I paid a visit on Wednesday to my 
neighbor the Bishop of Oxford, and met Lord Aberdeen, Eoundell 
Palmer, and some others. The old Earl was even more emphatic 
than at the same place a year ago in lamenting to me that he had 
suffered himself to be drawn into the Russian war. He declared 
that he ought to have resigned. 2 Speaking of the authors of his 
policy he said, ' It was not the Parliament or the public, but the 
Press that forced the Government into the war. The public mind 
was not at first in an uncontrollable state, but it was made so by 

the Press.' He might have added that had something to do 

with it. I really could not help pitying the old gentleman, for 
he was in an unenviable state of mind, and yet I doubt if there be 
a more reprehensible human act than to lead a nation into an 
unnecessary war, as Walpole, North, Pitt, and Aberdeen have done, 
against their own conviction and at the dictation of others " 

"Sept. 18. ( „ ) — I am actually so amazed and disgusted 
and excited at the frenzy to which all classes — and especially 
those called middle and respectable —have abandoned themselves, 
and am so horrified at the impudent impiety with which they 
make God a witness and partaker of their devilish paroxysm, that 

1 Maud was published at this time, full of beautiful poetry and barbarous poli- 
tics, about "the long long canker of peace being over and done," and so forth. 
The singular implication of the poet is that the best way to rescue the poor from 
being "hovell'd and hustled together, each sex, like swine," is to cultivate "the 
blood-red blossom of war." Unluckily war cannot go on without taxes, and 
taxes in the long run in a thousand ways aggravate the hovelling and hustling of 
the poor, as the state of the laborers after the war of Cobden's youth showed. 
That a man of Mr. Tennyson's genius should have been so led astray, only illustrates 
the raging folly of those two years. 

2 Sir James Graham in the same way said to Mr. Bright : "You were entirely 
right about that war ; we were entirely wrong, and we never should have gone 
into it. " Bright's Speeches, i. 192. " This war," wrote Sir George C. Lewis, who 
joined the Palmerston Government after Mr. Gladstone's resignation, " has been 
distasteful to me from the beginning, and especially so from the time when it ceased 
to be defensive and the Russian territory was invaded. My dislike of it, and my 
conviction of its repugnance to the interests of England and Europe was only in- 
creased with its progress." Feb. 14, 1855. — Letters, p. 291. 




■ 



428 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1855. 

I would rather say nothing about it. My only hope is in Louis 
Napoleon — his interests and necessities. When I saw Lord 
Aberdeen a few weeks since, he said that his only hope of peace 
was founded on a favorable issue of the siege. of Sebastopol ; that 
if Louis Napoleon could meet with a ' success ' to satisfy his army, 
he would seize the opportunity of making peace. Well, he has 
now the opportunity, and I have a strong impression (though 
founded on no facts) that he has sent pacific proposals to our 
Government, and that this embarrassing message is the cause of 
the frequent and long Cabinet Councils — for how can our Gov- 
ernment make out a case to their deluded followers to justify a 
peace which must certainly involve the abandonment of the Cri- 
mea ? The danger is that Louis Napoleon, whose one dominant 
idea is the alliance with England, may yield to Palmerston and 
the warlike spirit of our people, and go on with the war. But he 
has grave reasons against such a course at home. He will have 
to raise another army to pursue the war in the interior of Eussia ; 
bread is constantly rising in price ; and there is an ugly symptom 
of rottenness in the financial state of France, as illustrated by the 
Dr. and Cr. of the Bank of Trance, and the rapid fall of some of 
the public securities. How does it illustrate the madness of our 
combative countrymen when one can only turn with hope for 
peace to the coercion of a Bonaparte upon the deliberations of our 
Cabinet ! I don't see how we can act with Gladstone in the broad 
advocacy of non-intervention, so long as he professes to be an ad- 
vocate of the policy of invading Eussia. He seems to put an im- 
passable gulf between us by that one argument, for if anything is 
ever to be done again in favor of peace principles, it must be by 
persuading the masses at least to repudiate the very principle 
of the Eussian invasion " 

" Oct. 5. {To M. Chevalier?) — If war had not absorbed my anx- 
ieties, I should have given all my sympathies to the great indus- 
trial rivalry to which you have invited the nations of the world. 
I should have thought of the Champs Elys4es if my attention had 
not been unhappily so much distrait by the terrible scene which 
was exhibiting on the Champ de Mars. In fine, I deferred my 
visit to the Temple of Peace until after that of Janus should have 
been closed. But I fear that present appearances are against the 
realization of my plan ; and it is more than ever uncertain when 
I shall see you. Under these circumstances I shall trouble you 
upon paper, instead of viva voce, with a little unreserved chat upon 
the subject of the war. 

"You will remember that we had some confidential correspond- 
ence a few years ago, when the state of popular feeling here 
towards your Government was the very opposite to what it is 
now ; and I have reason to know that that correspondence had a 



.fflT.51.] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 429 

favorable influence upon the relations of the two countries, through 
the publication of those facts and statistics which you gave me ; 
and I wish we could now in a similar manner contribute to the 
restoration of the peace of the world. When in 1852 I published 
in speech and pamphlet my views respecting the cry of a ' French 
invasion/ I was denounced by nearly every London newspaper, 
and at present I am in pretty nearly the same predicament re- 
specting my opinions upon the war. But is it not possible that 
two or three years may produce in my opponents the same change 
upon the one question that has undoubtedly been effected on the 
other ? Depend on it there is a good deal of unreasoning passion 
and pecuniary selfishness on the part of the people and the Press 
of this country in the present warlike clamor. 

" I know proprietors of newspapers (the 

for example) who have pocketed 3000/. or 4000Z. a year through 
the war as directly as if the money had been voted to them in the 
Parliamentary estimates. It is not likely, unless they are very 
disinterested specimens of human nature, that they will oppose a 
policy so profitable to themselves. Biit the people, who have no 
interest in being misled, will probably become satiated with mo- 
notonous appeals to their combative passions, and then the papers 
will change. The moment this reaction of feeling shows itself in 
considerable force, there are all the most able statesmen of this 
country ready to head the party of peace. For it is a remarkable 
fact, that, whilst the mass of politicians appear to be so warlike, 
their leaders are all in their hearts opposed to a continuance of 
the war. I do not of course include Lord Palmerston amongst 
the number of leaders, for it is a notorious fact that he never pos- 
sessed the confidence of a dozen members of the House, and was 
therefore never at the head of a party. It is only because all the 
Parliamentary chiefs shrink from the responsibility of continuing 
the war that he has been enabled to seize the reins. All men of 
the age of seventy-two, with unsatisfied ambition, are desperadoes ; 
and. Lord Palmerston, in addition to this qualification, having had 
the experience of nearly half a century of Parliamentary life, hav- 
ing continued to persuade the democracy that he was a revolu- 
tionist, whilst the aristocracy knew him to be their safe friend, he 
became the fittest incarnation of the delusion, bewilderment, and 
deception into which the public mind had been plunged ; and he 
and his colleagues hold office to carry on a war for the continu- 
ance of which no other statesmen choose to be responsible. Had 
it not been for the war, the present ministry could never have 
been in power, and it will not last two months after the return of 
peace." 

"Dec. 19. {To R. Ashworth.) — I have been gratified by the re- 
ceipt of your letter. The newspaper also reached me. It is sad 



430 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1856. 

to see the bewilderment of the poor people about the price of 
bread, but we ought to be very tolerant with them, seeing how 
much ignorance we meet with amongst their ' betters.' 

" The papers are underrating the effect of the drain of capital for 
the war on the floating capital of the country. People look at the 
assessment returns of real property, and they say, ' See how much 
more rich we are than we were in the last war.' But this fixed 
property is not available for war. It is only the floating capital 
which sets it in motion that is available. Now, I suspect that the 
proportion of floating to fixed capital employed in the manufac- 
tures of the country is less in relation to the number of workpeople 
employed than ever it was. Am I right in this ? Has not the ten- 
dency been to increase the fixed as compared with the floating 
capital in a mill? If so, it is a very serious question how soon 
the withdrawal of the life-blood (the floating capital) may stop the 
whole body. With interest of capital at six to seven per cent for 
trading purposes, how long will it be before some of the weaker 
among you go to the wall ? If, as you say, the cotton trade as a 
whole has paid no profit, there must be a large proportion that 
are losing, and they will break if the war goes on. Then will 
follow distress among the operatives. 

" You hear a good deal about agricultural prosperity. Turn to 
the dictionary, and ' agriculturist ' means one who has skill to cul- 
tivate the land. The laborer is the agriculturist quite as much 
as the farmer, and he belongs to a body five to one more numer- 
ous. I assure you I never saw more distress among this class. 
They are generally employed. But their wages here never exceed 
12s., and are often only 10s., and if you try to calculate how a 
man and his wife and three or four small children live upon this 
sum, with bread at 2\d. a lb., you will find your arithmetical 
talent very much taxed. Dry bread is all that they can get. 
The pigs have disappeared from their sties. They and their chil- 
dren are looking haggard and pale and ragged, and this is agricul- 
tural prosperity." 

When the war was at last brought to an end at the Congress 
of Paris in the spring of 1856, two remarkable steps were taken 
by the assembled plenipotentiaries in Cobden's direction. They 
recognized the expediency and the possibility of submitting inter- 
national differences to arbitration. Secondly, they incorporated 
in the public law of Europe certain changes in the right of mari- 
time capture which tended to make trade which was free in time 
of peace, as free as possible in time of war also. 



.fflT.52.] DEATH OF HIS SON. 431 

CHAPTEE XXV. 

DEATH OF HIS SON. 

At this moment Cobden was stricken by one of those cruel blows 
from which men and women often recover, but after which they 
are never again what they were before. He lost his only son, a 
boy of singular energy and promise. The boy, who was now fif- 
teen years old, was at school at Weinheim, about fourteen miles 
from Heidelberg. He was suddenly seized by an attack of scarlet 
fever, and died in the course of three or four days (April 6, 1856), 
before his parents at home even knew that he was ill. There was 
nothing to soften the horror of the shock. Cobden was the first 
to hear of what had happened. His friend, Chevalier Bunsen, had 
recommended the school, a few miles away from Charlottenburg, 
his own residence. The schoolmaster sent Bunsen a telegraphic 
message, and took for granted that Bunsen would communicate 
with Cobden. Bunsen, on the other hand, took it for granted 
that the news would be sent by the schoolmaster. The result 
was that Cobden heard nothing until he heard all. In a letter to 
one of the most intimate of his friends, he told how the blow fell : — 

" I had invited Colonel Fitzmayer from the Crimea to breakfast 
at nine on the Thursday. When I came down from my sleep- 
ing-room in Grosvenor Street, I found him and the breakfast 
waiting. My letters were lying on the table, and I apologized 
for opening them before beginning our meal, and the third letter 
I opened informed me that my dear boy, who by the latest ac- 
counts was described as the healthiest and strongest in the school, 
was dead and in his grave. No one not placed in the same situa- 
tion can form the faintest conception of my task in making the 
journey tothis place [Dunford], which took me five hours, bearing a 
secret which I knew was worse than a sentence of death on my 
poor wife, for she would have gladly given her life, a dozen times, 
if it were possible to save his. 1 found her in the happiest 
spirits, having just before been reading to my brother and the 
family circle a long letter from the dear boy, written a few days 
previously, and when he was in the best possible state of health. 
I tried to manage my communication, but the dreadful journey 
had been too much for me, and I broke down instantly, and was 
obliged to confess all. She did not comprehend the loss, but was 
only stunned ; and for twenty-four hours was actually lavishing 
attentions on me, and superintending her household as before." 

I have been told how he entered his house at nightfall, and met 
his wife unexpectedly on the threshold ; she uttered an exclama- 



432 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1856. 

tion as she caught his haggard and stricken face. His little 
children were making merry in the drawing-room. He could 
only creep to his room, where he sat with bent head and prostrate, 
unstrung limbs. When the first hours were over, and the un- 
happy mother realized the miserable thing that had befallen her, 
she sat for many days like a statue of marble, neither speaking 
nor seeming to hear ; her eyes not even turning to notice her little 
girl, whom they placed upon her knee, her hair blanching with 
the hours. 

It would be a violation of sacred things to dwell upon the 
months that followed. Cobden felt as men of his open and simple 
nature are wont to feel, when one of the great cruelties of life 
comes home to their bosoms. He was bewildered by the eternal 
perplexities of reconciling untimely death with the common 
morality of things. " God ! " he exclaims, repeating a common- 
place of the grave, so old and well-worn, yet ever fresh in its 
pathos, " what a mystery of mysteries is this life — that one so 
young and bright, around whom our hopes and dreams had been 
twining themselves for fifteen years, should be in a few hours- 
struck down and withered like a weed ! " His was not a soul to 
lose itself in brooding over the black enigma. There is not a word 
of rebellion. He accepts the affliction as a decree of the inscruta- 
ble Power, and his quiet and humble patience touches us the 
more, because we discern the profound suffering beneath it. His 
anguish at the blighting of his own love and hope, was made 
keener by the strange torpor which now and for long afflicted his 
wife. His tenderness and devotion to her in the midst of all this 
agony, were unremitting and inexhaustible. Six weeks after the 
fatal news had come, he was able to write to his brother-in-law : — 
" I have not been out of her sight for an hour at a time (except 
at the funeral) since we learnt our bereavement ; and I do not 
believe she would have been alive and in her senses now, if I had 
not been able to lessen her grief by sharing it." And this urgent 
demand upon his sympathies and attention continued beyond 
weeks, into months. 

" My poor wife," he writes to a friend, 1 " makes but slow pro- 
gress in the recovery of her health. She is on the lawn or in the 
field all day with a little spade in hand, digging up the weeds ; 
it is the only muscular effort she can make, and it unfortunately 
leaves her mind free to brood over the one absorbing subject. 
The open air must in time give her strength, but as yet she has 
not been able to pass a night without the aid of opiates. Her 
friends must have pity and forget her for a time. She is not a 
heroine ; but hers is a terrible case, and might have taxed the 
energies of the strongest mind of her sex. I am sure that they 

1 To Joseph Parkes, May 23, 1856. 



Mr. 52.] DEATH OF HIS SON. 433 

who are impatient with her under such a severe trial, can never 
have realized in their minds the ordeal she has had to go through. 
She requires the patience and tender treatment of a child. It is 
true, as Bright says (who is one of the tenderest-hearted creatures 
I know), that we know but imperfectly what a mother suffers in 
such a case." 

To the same friend, a fortnight later, he says : 1 — "I cannot 
prove as good as my word by coming to town this week, but my 
poor wife will accompany me on Monday. She is as helpless as 
one of her young children, and requires as much forbearance and 
kindness. God knows how much the comfort and regularity of 
her domestic life have always been made subservient, willingly 
and meekly so, to my political engagements, without one atom 
of ambition to profit by the privileges which to some natures offer 
a kind of compensation for family discomfort. And, bearing this 
in view, I have from the moment that this terrible blow fell on 
us, determined to make every other claim on my time and atten- 
tion subordinate (even to the giving up of my seat) to the task of 
mitigating her sufferings. No other human being but myself can 
afford her the slightest relief. I sometimes doubt whether for the 
next six months I shall be able to leave her for twenty -four hours 
together." 

He repeats, with the helpless iteration of an incurable grief, 
how hard is the case of a mother, who had not seen her son waste 
gradually away as she tended his death-bed, but who suddenly 
and in a moment stumbled over his corpse as she passed cheer- 
fully from room to room. She never to the last submitted to the 
blow with the graces of resignation, and hence she never had the 
comparative solace that might have come either from religion or 
from reason. To the end she fought against her fate. " But if 
4here be one act of contumacy," Cobden wrote in tender depreca- 
tion, " which God would pardon beyond all others in his creatures, 
it is surely that which springs from the excessive affection of a 
mother for her child." 

The external trifles of life were in sombre accord with the 
tragedy that overshadowed their hearts. All things, small as well 
as great, in which Cobden was concerned, seemed to go wrong. 
His best cows lost their calves. The fruit in the orchard was all 
blighted. A fine crop of hay lay spoiling in the rain. Deeper 
than these vexations was his anxious concern for Mr. Bright. 
For eighteen years almost without an interval Mr. Bright had 
been at work in public causes. The labor of preparation and 
advocacy would in itself have been enormous, but the strain was 
peculiarly intensified by the fact that the labor was pursued in 
face of misrepresentation and obloquy such as few English states- 

1 To Joseph Partes, June 4, 1356. 
28 



434 LIFE Or COBDEN. [1856. 

men have ever had to endure. At a time when repose would 
under any circumstances have become necessary, instead of repose 
came the violent excitement of the Eussian War. Mr. Bright's 
health gave way, and many of his friends began to fear that he 
was permanently disabled. " I think of him," Cobden wrote, 
" with more serious apprehension than he is aware of." And his 
correspondence with their common friends shows the reality of 
his solicitude. This is an extract from one of his letters of that 
time : — "I have always had a sort of selfish share in Bright's 
career, for I have felt as though, when passing the zenith of life, 
I was handing over every principle and cause I had most at heart 
to the advocacy of one, not only younger and more energetic, but 
with gifts of natural eloquence to which I never pretended. .... 
Perhaps there never were two men who lived in such transparent 
intimacy of mind as Bright and myself. Next to the loss of my 
boy, I have had no sorrow so constant and great as from his 
illness. The two together make me feel quite unnerved, and I 
seem to be always feeling about in my mind for an excuse for 
quitting the public scene. Bright's loss, if permanent, is a public 
calamity. If you could take the opinion of the whole House, he 
would be pronounced, by a large majority, to combine more earnest- 
ness, courage, honesty, and eloquence, than any other man. But 
we will not speak of him as of the past. God grant that he may 
recover ! " : 

Mr. Bright and his family were staying in the autumn of this 
year at Llandudno. It happened that a friend, about the same 
time, offered the use of her house in the neighborhood of Bangor 
to Cobden. Mrs. Cobden seemed to be falling into a settled 
torpor, which alarmed her husband. Dreading the winter gloom 
and the association of home, he resolved to try a great change, and 
accepting his friend's offer, he went with his family to "Wales. 
Here the clouds slowly began to show a rift. Mr. Bright and he 
paid one another visits, with the bargain exacted by Cobden that 
not a word should be exchanged about politics. He was slightly 
reassured as to his friend's condition. At home there were signs 
of better things. Everybody about them was kind and neighborly. 
Friendly offices were pressed on the suffering mother by good 
women, " such indeed," says Cobden, " as are found in the middle 
and upper ranks in every corner of Britain." Mrs. Cobden 
roused herself to talk her own Welsh among the poor people who 
knew no other language, and who brightened up and became 
confidential the moment that they were addressed in their own 
tongue. Her little children gradually became a diversion and 
resource. But her husband could not permit himself to do more 
than hope that she was perhaps recovering. His own mind began 

i To Joseph Parkes, Nov. 11, 1856. 



Ms. 52.] GHINESE AFFAIRS. ■ 435 

to recover its tone, and his interest in public affairs to revive. 
Lord Brougham among others was very anxious to impress upon 
him the doctrine that it is Work only, and not Time, that can 
relieve the mind from the pressure of bereavement. " If I had 
only my own case to consult," Cobden said, " I would at once 
return to the duties of life, and try to escape from the thoughts of 
the past in the hard labor and turmoil of politics." 

Of the prospects of domestic legislation, he writes : — "I suppose 
the work to be attempted next session is law reform; and nothing 
is more pressing. Thorough measures, such as simplifying the 
sale of land up to something like the Irish Encumbered Estates 
standard, shall have my hearty support as industriously in the 
way of votes as if I were in the government. But I tell you can- 
didly, I think this work would be better done if the Tories were 
in. The Lords rule this land in ordinary times supremely. It is 
only once in ten or twenty years that with a great effort the 
country thrusts them off from some bone of contention, but merely 
to leave them in possession of the rest of the carcass as securely 
as ever. Now the Lords look on the Tories as their party. They 
know that to enable them to keep office something must be done, 
and as they cannot satisfy the Radicals in organic questions, they 
strain a point to let their men have the credit of some thorough 
practical reforms of the law and administration. Hence the good 
round measure of Chancery Eeform which the Peers passed for 
the Derby -Disraeli government. And depend on it, if we were 
now on the left-hand side of the Speaker's chair again, there 
would be a better measure of law reform passed than we are likely 
to see next session." 1 

Nowhere can prospects be calculated with so little certainty as 
in parliamentary politics. The session for which Cobden thus 
anticipated such tranquil occupation, proved to be one of the most 
striking landmarks in his history. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

CHINESE AFFAIES — COBDEN'S MOTION — THE DISSOLUTION. 

The first week of the new year (1857) found Cobden back again 
at Dunford ; but at the end of January he went with his wife to 
a hydropathic establishment at Richmond. " I have little sym- 
pathy myself," he said, " with the hydropathic superstition ; but 
the simple diet and regular hours are always in favor of health." 
As it happened he had, besides simple diet and quiet hours, some- 

1 To J. Parkes, Dec. 11, 1856. 



436 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

thing which to natures such as his is the most favorable of all 
conditions to sound health, I mean the excitement of vigorous 
interest in a great public cause. 

Certain transactions in China had for some time attracted his 
vigilant attention, and they now occupied him to the exclusion of 
everything else. In his pamphlet on the Second Burmese War 
Cobden had shown the danger and injustice of our accepted policy 
towards the weak nations of the East. A war had now broken 
out in China which illustrated the same principles in a still more 
striking way. Sir John Bowring, the Governor of Hong Kong, was 
an old friend of Cobden's, a member of the Peace Society, and one 
of the earliest agitators against the Corn Law. But he was a man 
without pra tical judgment, and he became responsible for one of 
the worst of the Chinese wars. The Chinese boarded the "Arrow," 
and rescued twelve of their countrymen from it on a charge of 
piracy. The British Consul protested on the ground that mal- 
feasants on board a British ship should not be seized, but should 
be demanded from the Consul. Nine men were returned at once. 
Bowring sent word that unless the whole of the men were re- 
turned within eight-and-forty hours, with apologies for the past 
and pledges for the future, the English men-of-war would begin 
operations. On a certain day the whole of the men were returned, 
with a protest from the Chinese governor that the ship was not a 
British ship, and that therefore he was not bound to demand his 
malfeasants from the Consul. The Chinese governor was perfectly 
in the right,. Bowring's contention was an absolute error from 
beginning to end. 1 The "Arrow" was not a British ship. Its 
license had expired. Even if this had not been so, the Hong 
Kong agents had no power to give a license to a Chinese ship- 
owner protecting him against his own government. The case 
stood thus then. Bowring had made a claim which was legally 
untenable. The Chinese governor, while declaring it illegal, ac- 
quiesced in the demand. Yet the day after the whole of the men 
had been given up, naval and military operations were begun, a 
great number of Chinese junks were destroyed, the suburbs of 
Canton were burnt and battered down, the town was shelled, and 
this iniquitous devastation was the beginning of a long and 
costly war. 

The course which the Government at home ought to have taken 
was this. Bowring ought to have been recalled ; in time it is to 
be hoped that public opinion will insist that agents who are guilty 
of action of this kind shall not only be recalled, but shall be for- 

1 Mr. Ashley's account of this transaction (Life of Palmerston, ii. 344), is too 
condensed to be quite accurate. If a man of Mr. Ashley's industry and character 
is not careful to see the facts of such cases precisely and as they were, we cannot 
wonder at the rough and ready style in which the public is wont to take the un- 
sifted official stories for granted, whenever a British agent launches his country into 
one of these scandalous wars. 



Mr. 53.] CHINESE AFFAIRS. 437 

lnalry disgraced and explicitly punished. His recall would have 
been justified even by the opinion of that day or of this. It was 
not, however, to be expected from the statesman whose politics 
never got beyond Civis Romanus, especially when he was dealing 
with a very weak Power. The Government resolved to support 
Bo wring. As usual, they shifted the ground from the particular 
to the general; if the Chinese were right about the "Arrow," they 
were wrong about something else; if legality did not exactly 
justify violence, it was at any rate required by policy ; orientals 
mistake justice for fear; and so on through the string of well-worn 
sophisms, which are always pursued in connection with such 
affairs. 

To Cobden, as we may suppose, the whole transaction seemed 
worthy of condemnation on every ground. Bowring's demand 
was illegal, and ought not to have been made. If this was doubt- 
ful, at any rate Bowring's violent action was precipitate. It was 
a resort in the first instance to measures which would hardly 
have been justifiable in the last instance. If there were general 
grievances against the Chinese, why not make joint representa- 
tions with France and the United States, instead of stumbling 
into a quarrel in which we had not a leg to stand upon, and 
beginning a war for which in the opinion of our best lawyers 
there was no proper ground. 1 

The chance of reversing the course of policy depended as usual 
on the accidents of party combination. In a letter to Mr. Lind- 
say written in the last month of 1856, Cobden describes the state 
of parties at that time. " It is unlike," he said, " everything I 
have witnessed for the last fifteen years. There seems to be no 
party having an intelligible principle or policy in which any con- 
siderable body out of doors takes an interest. The two sides of 
the House no longer represent opposing parties — unless, indeed, 
it may be said that our leader is at heart an aristocratic Tory, 
while the chief of the Opposition is, if anything, a democratic 
Eaclical. Of this a considerable number on the Tory side seem 
to be shrewdly aware, for they evince no desire to turn out Palm- 
erston, in whom they have more confidence than in Disraeli." 
Under these circumstances, however, the position of a Minister 
must always be precarious, for the absence of definitely antago- 
nistic policies places him at the mercy of fortuitous personal 
coalitions. One of these coalitions came into existence now. 

1 Lord Elgin, who was sent out to carry on the war, says in his diary : "I have 
hardly alluded in my ultimatum to that wretched question of the ' Arrow,' which 
is a scandal to us, and is so considered, I have reason to know, by all except the 
few who are personally compromised." Letters and Journals, p. 209. " It is im- 
possible to read the blue-books," he says elsewhere, " without feeling that we have 
often acted towards the Chinese in a manner which it is very difficult to justify." 
(p. 185.) See also pp. 191, 218, &c, &c. 



438 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

The Peelites were only following the tradition of their master 
in condemning a precipitate and useless war. Mr. Disraeli 
and his friends played the official part of an Opposition in 
censuring an Administration. Lord John Eussell obeyed an 
honest instinct for justice. All these sections resolved to sup- 
port Cobden. It was on the 26th of February that Cobden 
brought forward a motion to the effect that, without expressing an 
opinion on the causes of complaint arising from non-fulfilment of 
the treaty of 1842, the House thought the late violent measures 
at Canton not justified by' the papers, and that a Select Com- 
mittee should inquire iuto the commercial relations with China. 
This enabled him to cover the whole ground of our policy in that 
country. He did so in one of the most masterly of his speeches ; 
it was closely argued, full of matter, without an accent of passion, 
unanswerable on the special case, and thoroughly broad and 
statesmanlike in general views. 1 The House was profoundly im- 
pressed. After a long debate, in which Lord Palmerston taunted 
Cobden with his un-English spirit, and wondered how he could 
have thought of attacking an old friend like Bo wring, the division 
was taken. There was a majority of sixteen against the Govern- 
ment. The sixteen would have been sixty, it was said, if Lord 
Derby's party had held together. That so many of them were 
found on Cobden's side, showed that, so far as opinion and con- 
viction went, the minority was very small indeed. But, as we 
are always seeing, it is the tendency of party government to throw 
opinion and conviction too often into a secondary place. Mr. Glad- 
stone said that if the division had been taken immediately after 
the speeches of Cobden and Lord John Eussell, the motion would 
have been carried by a majority so overwhelming that the Minis- 
ter could not have ventured to appeal to the country against it. 
The interval allowed the old party considerations to resume their 
usual force. As it was, Lord Palmerston with his usual acuteness 
and courage of judgment determined to dissolve Parliament. 
Mr. Bright was now at Eome. " I need not tell you," he wrote 
to Cobden, " how greatly pleased I was with the news, and espe- 
cially that the blow was given by your hand." The blow was 
unhappily to be returned with interest. 

The country had not long been engaged in the heat and turmoil 
of the general election, before Cobden detected ominous signs. 
He had long before resolved to abandon his seat for the West 
Eiding. It was too plain that he had no chance. His views on 
education alienated one section, and his views on the Eussian 
War had alienated all sections. It was thought that Hudders- 
field was the borough where the feeling of which Mr. Baines was 
the chief exponent, and which Cobden had offended, was least 

i Speeches, ii. 121-156. 



Ms. 53.] COBDEN'S MOTION. — THE DISSOLUTION. 439 

formidable. So to Huddersfield tie went. But he was not more 
active for himself, than he was on behalf of his absent comrade. 
It is easy to explain the feeling that was abroad. Under our 
system there is little tolerance for individual dissent, and new 
principles make their way against artificial difficulties of desper- 
ate force. People said that Cobden and his friends had shown 
themselves perversely independent of the Minister. They had 
been a thorn in the side of three Liberal Governments. They 
had been openly mutinous under Lord John Russell ; they had 
opposed Lord Aberdeen ; they had violently quarrelled with Lord 
Palmerston. They had committed the unpardonable offence of 
leading their enemies to turn out their friends. All this was 
narrow, undiscriminating, and ungenerous. In time men became 
ashamed of such criticism, but for the hour it was fatal. Cob- 
den moved the vast audiences of the Free Trade Hall to its 
depths by an eloquent and touching vindication of Mr. Bright, 
with whom, as he told them, he had lived in the most trans- 
parent intimacy of mind that two human beings ever enjoyed to- 
gether. When he spoke of Mr. Bright's health, — " impaired in 
that organ which excites feelings of awe and of the utmost com- 
miseration for him on the part of all right-minded men," — his 
emotion almost overpowered him, and shook the soul of his hear- 
ers. 1 But the practical conclusion was foregone. He wrote hasty 
notes to inform Mrs. Cobden of his fears. 

" Manchester, March 17. — I hear very discouraging accounts of 
Bright and Gibson. There have been many defections, and unless 
our friends are giving themselves needless alarm, I fear the 
chances are greatly against us. The cause chiefly assigned is less 
an alteration of opinion than a feeling of resistance towards the 
ghost of the League, which still persists in haunting Newall's 
Buildings, and, as is alleged, dictates to Manchester. I was al- 
ways of opinion that it would have been much better to have 
abolished the whole concern and taken up new quarters, and a 
new name. But it is too late to say anything about it now, and, 
indeed, the less said the better. I have determined to go to Hud- 
dersfield. I attend a great meeting this evening in the Free Trade 
Hall, and to-morrow shall proceed to Huddersfield." 

" Huddersfield, March 24. — I am dragged about all the day 
through mud and mire canvassing, and hardly know whether I 
can win. I don't think they are by any means safe at- Manchester. 
I go over there again to-morrow, to attend a meeting in the Free 
Trade Hall." 

" March 25. — We have just had the nomination. I was 
dragged to the hustings and obliged to speak, very much against 
my inclination. We had the show of hands. The polling is to- 

1 See Speeches, ii. 74. 



440 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

morrow. Our friends are in better spirits every hour, but I am 
still very doubtful. If I win, I will telegraph to London, and 
request a letter to be sent by to-morrow's post to you. So if you 
do not hear at the same time as you get this, conclude that I have 
lost." 

No telegram was sent, for Cobden was beaten. A Tory had 
carried the borough not long before, and now the combination of 
Tories with Palmerstonian Whigs was doubly irresistible. Cob- 
den only polled 590 votes, against 823 for his opponent. At 
Manchester Mr. Gibson and Mr. Bright were defeated, and the 
latter of them was at the bottom of the poll. 1 Fox was thrown 
out' at Oldham, and Miall at Eochdale. Lord Palmerston's vic- 
tory was complete, and the Manchester School was routed. Noth- 
ing had been seen like it since the disappearance of the Peace 
Whigs in 1812, when Brougham, Eomilly, Tierney, Lamb, and 
Horner all lost their seats. 

Mr. Bright wrote to Cobden from Borne during the elections. 
He had, he said sarcastically, just been reading Bulwer's Bienzi, 
and so he was prepared for ignorance, scurrility, selfishness, in- 
gratitude, and all the other unpleasant qualities that every honest 
politician must meet with. When the news of the great reverse 
reached him, he took it with a certain composure. He put the 
case to Cobden, exactly as to a historical observer five-and-twenty 
years later it would seem that it ought to have been put. 

" Venice, April 16. 

" My dear Cobden, — I have been intending to write to you 
from day to day since I received your letter. It was most refresh- 
ing to me to read it, although its topics were not of the most 
pleasing, but it came at the right time, and it said the right thing, 
and was just such as I needed 

"In the sudden break-up of the 'School' of which we have 
been the chief professors, we may learn how far we have been, 
and are, ahead of the public opinion of our time. We purpose 
not to make a trade of politics, and not to use as may best suit us 
the ignorance and the prejudices of our countrymen for our own 
advantage, but rather to try to square the policy of the country 
with the maxims of common sense and of a plain morality. The 
country is not yet ripe for this, but it is far nearer being so than at 
any former period, and I shall not despair of a revolution in opin- 
ion which shall within a few years greatly change the aspect of 
affairs with reference to our Foreign policy. During the com- 
paratively short period since we entered public life, see what has 
been done. Through our labors mainly the whole creed of 
millions of people, and of the statesmen of our day, has been to- 
1 Sir J. Potter, 8368 ; Turner, 7854 ; Gibson, 5588 ; Bright, 5458. 



Mr. 53.] COBDEN'S MOTION. — THE DISSOLUTION. 441 

tally changed on all the questions which affect commerce, and 
customs duties, and taxation. They now agree to repudiate as 
folly what, twenty years ago, they accepted as wisdom. Look 
again at our Colonial policy. Through the labors of Molesworth, 
Eoebuck, and Hume, more recently supported by us, and by Glad- 
stone, every article in the creed which directed our Colonial 
policy has been abandoned, and now men actually abhor the 
notion of undertaking the government of the Colonies ; on the 
contrary, they give to every Colony that asks for it a Constitution 
as democratic as that which exists -in the United States. 

" Turn to the question of Parliamentary Eeform. ' Finality ' is 
stoutly repudiated, not by Lord John Eussell alone, but by the 
Tories. I observe that, at the recent elections, Tories have re- 
peatedly admitted that there must be Parliamentary Eeform, and 
that they will not oppose a moderate dose of it ; and I suppose 
something before long will be done, not so real as we wish, but 
something that will make things move a little. 

" But if on Commercial legislation, on Colonial policy, on ques- 
tions of Suffrage, and I might have added on questions of Church, 
for a revolution in opinion is apparent there also, we see this re- 
markable change, why should we despair of bringing about an 
equally great change in the sentiments of the people with regard 
to foreign affairs ? Palmerston and his press are at the bottom of 
the excitement that has lately prevailed ; he will not last long as 
Minister or as man. I see no one ready to accept his mantle 
when it drops from him. Ten years hence, those who live so 
long may see a complete change on the questions on which the 
public mind has been recently so active and so much mistaken. 

" This is bringing philosophy to comfort us in our misfortunes, 
you will say, and does not mend the present, and it is true enough, 
but it is just the line of reasoning, I doubt not, which has pre- 
sented itself to your mind when free from the momentary vexa- 
tion caused by recent events. I am the least unfortunate of our 
small section, for a year of idleness and of ill-health has made 
absence from Parliament familiar to me, and I have contemplated 
resigning my seat since the beginning of 1856. Personally, there- 
fore, to be out is neither strange nor unpleasant, and I am sur- 
prised how very little I have cared about the matter on my own 
account. I hope you can feel somewhat as I do, conscious that 
we are ostracized because our political creed is in advance of, and 
our political morality higher than, that of the people for whom 
we have given up the incessant labors of nearly twenty years. 
Time will show, and a long time will not be needed to show, the 
hollo wness of the imposture which now rules. Its face may be 
of brass, but its feet are of clay 

" It is strange after so much experience that we should be dis- 
appointed that opinion goes on so slowly. We have taught what 



442 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

is true in our ' School/ but the discipline was a little too severe 
for the scholars. Disraeli will say he was right : we are hardly 
of the English type, and success, political and personal success, 
cannot afford to reject the use which may be made of ignorance 
and prejudice among a people. This is his doctrine, and with his 
views it is true ; but as we did not seek personal objects, it is not 
true of us. If we are rejected for peace and for truth, we stand 
higher before the world and for the future than if we mingled 
with the patient mediocrities which compose the present Cab- 
inet I hope the clouds may break, and that sunshine may 

come again. Ever yours very sincerely, 

" John Bright." 

After the elections were over, Cobden went to his home in Sus- 
sex, and there he remained in retirement for nearly two years. 
His correspondence shows how sharply he felt the defeat. 

To Mr. Moffatt he writes : — 

" April 7. — I find a retreat to this drowsy neighborhood very 
necessary for my health. I overdid it, in trying to canvass Hud- 
dersfield and Manchester at the same time, and was almost afraid 
my head was giving way. However, my old medicine, sleep, has 
nearly restored me. But I am determined to keep out of the 
ring for the present. It suits me on private and domestic grounds 
to have been beaten at Huddersfield (where my good friends 
ought not to have taken me), and although the dose is a little 
nauseous, the medicine will ultimately be of service to me. But 
I am persecuted with innumerable letters from kind people, who 
have taken up the notion that I must require encouragement and 
condolence. And they have all sorts of projects ready cut and 
dry for me, as if I could begin a life of agitation again, and re- 
peat the labors of my prime now that I am past the zenith. 

" The only incident of the election which hangs about me with 
a permanent feeling of irritability, is the atrocious treatment 
Bright has received from the people at Manchester. They are 
mainly indebted to him for the prosperity which has converted a 
majority into little better than Tories, and now the base snobs 
kick away the ladder ! I find my scorn boiling over constantly, 
and can hardly keep my hands, or rather my pen, off them. The 
case of Gibson is different. He could not have been without the 
expectation that some day an end would be put to a connection 
for which there was no special fitness ; and to have sat for 
nearly eighteen years for Manchester has given him a position 
which nothing can take away. I do not, however, think he de- 
served to be left in a minority. But Bright's case is very different. 
He was one of themselves. You know how valiantly he defended 
his order against all assailants. He was an honor to his constit- 
uents. They had no grievance on account of his peace views, 



Mi. 53.] COBDEN'S MOTION. — THE DISSOLUTION. 443 

for they knew he was a Quaker when they elected him. To 
place such a man at the bottom of the poll, when prostrate by 
excessive labors in the public service, is the most atrocious speci- 
men of political ingratitude I ever encountered I do not 

believe he will be affected in the way you fear by the news. He 
will, I believe, take it very coolly and philosophically ; and I think 
it will prove probably the best thing that could have happened for 
his health." 

On the same day he writes to Mr. Hargr" eaves : — "The secret 
of such a display of snobbishness and ingratitude is in the great 
prosperity which Lancashire enjoys, and for which it is mainly in- 
debted to Bright ; and the result has been to make a large increase 
to the number of Tories, and to cool down to a genteel' tone the 
politics of the Whigs, until at last the majority find an earnest 
Eadical not sufficiently genteel for their taste. This will go on in 
the north of England so long as our exports continue to increase at 
their present rate, and in the natural course of things more Tories 
will be returned." 

The same humor finds vent in some words to Mr. W. S. Lindsay 
of this date : — 

" Did my friend make a failure of seconding the Address ? 

I hear so. I have never known a manufacturing representa- 
tive put into cocked hat and breeches and ruffles, with a sword by 
his side, to make a speech for the Government, without having 
his head turned by the feathers and frippery. Generally they 
give way to a paroxysm of snobbery, and go down on their bellies, 
and throw dust on their heads, and fling dirt at the prominent men 
of their own order." 

At the end of July a vacancy was made in the representation 
of Birmingham by the death of Mr. Muntz, and Mr. Bright was 
quickly chosen to fill the seat. His health seemed to have been 
so dangerously shaken, that Cobden expressed a natural solicitude 
on so speedy a return to the agitation of public life. To Mr. 
Parkes he wrote : — 

"August 9, 1857. — I cannot help confessing to you my doubts 
whether Bright will be equal to the task which he seems bent 
upon undertaking without much more forbearance. If he break 
down again, the chances are that he is shelved for life, and may lose 
even the powers which he is now in secure possession of. I very 
much fear he allows himself to be pushed forward by others who 
are interested, from enjoying a reflected share of his greatness, in 
seeing him again in the House. But I have no reason to suppose 
that this is the case with his wife and family. I have said as 
much as I could to urge him to be quiet, but I doubt whether he 
has the power to divert his mind from politics. He seemed to me 
to be watching or speculating on the details of political movements 
whilst he was in Algiers or Italy, pretty much the same as when 



444 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

he was at home. The honest and independent course taken by 
the people at Birmingham, their exemption from aristocratic snob- 
bery, and their fair appreciation of a democratic son of the people, 
confirm me in the opinion I have always had that the social and 
political state of that town is far more healthy than that of Man- 
chester ; and it arises from the fact that the industry of the hard- 
ware district is carried on by small manufacturers, employing a few 
men and boys each, sometimes only an apprentice or two ; whilst 
the great capitalists in Manchester form an aristocracy, individual 
members of which wield an influence over sometimes two thousand 
persons. The former state of society is more natural and healthy 
in a moral and political sense. There is a freer intercourse be- 
tween all"classes than in the Lancashire town, where a great and 
impassable gulf separates the workman from his employer. The 
great capitalist class formed an excellent basis for the Anti-Corn- 
Law movement, for they had inexhaustible purses, which they 
opened freely in a contest where not only their pecuniary interests 
but their pride as ' an order ' was at stake. But I very much 
doubt whether such a state of society is favorable to a democratic 
political movement, and this view I have urged upon Wilson and 
Bright ever since the League was, or ought to have been, abolished. 
If Bright should recover his health and be able to head a party 
for parliamentary reform, in my opinion Birmingham will be a 
better home for him than Manchester. 

" Charles Sumner has been here, and is now on his way to see 
De Tocqueville. We had some very long adjourned debates, as 
you may suppose. What a talker he is ! One night, or rather 
morning, I had to warn him to bed at half-past one, which to us 
rustics is a late sitting, for at this harvest-time folks are thinking 
of getting up to work soon after that. But excepting for his own 
health's sake I would have gladly protracted our nodes to daylight. 
It is refreshing to meet with a man of his intellectual calibre and 
of such accomplishments, one too so capable in every way of play- 
ing a politician's part, giving up all to conscience. I really hardly 
know such a case. We can't put ourselves in such a comparison, 
for we have not the same temptations even had we his powers. 
For in this aristocratic country we know that the chief seats must 
be occupied by men of a given class, or their nominees. In his 
country every post was accessible to him, if he could only speak 
successfully to Bunkum." 

" July 28. {To Mr. Parkes.) — Very many thanks for your think- 
ing of me sometimes. I am deep in mangolds and pigs, and unless 
you brought me occasionally in contact with the great maelstrom 
of politics, I should be in danger of forgetting that there are such 
things as Whigs and Tories in the world. Believe me, I am in 
no hurry to get back to the House. When I saw the other day 
that the House sat till half-past four, I hugged myself, and 



Mi. 53.] COBDEN'S MOTION. —THE DISSOLUTION. 445 

looked out on the South Downs with a keener relish. The tone 
of Parliament is unlike anything I have ever witnessed, and -I 
should not like to be made more closely acquainted with it. 
There is a spirit of servility, which cannot last ; for a really manly 
assembly (which the House of Commons is) will recover its self- 
respect, and the reaction will perhaps be all the stronger from the 
consciousness which will one day flash upon it that it has been 
prostrating itself before a brazen image, as hollow as it is impu- 
dent. But I am content to wait. It is true that Sumner has 
offered to come and see me, and if he would stay a few days it 
would be well for his health, but I expect he will linger in town 
till he has only a day to give me. I went on Friday to dine at 
the Bishop of Oxford's to meet Lord Aberdeen, and slept there. 
The old Earl was looking older and more taciturn than usual. 
His clothes looked too large for his frame. I should fear he is 
wasting away, but his northern air, I hope, will set him up again. 
It is the third year I have had a long tete-a-tete with him, and I 
have always found myself much interested in a thoroughly quiet 
and homely intercourse with him and his host 

" In answer to your friend's inquiry about Bowring's truthful- 
ness, you may content yourself with a general description of the 
genus sentimentalist. They are not to be depended on in political 
action, because they are not masters of their own reasoning 
powers. They sing songs or declaim about truth, justice, liberty, 
and the like, but it is only in the same artificial spirit in which 
they make odes to dewdrops, daisies, &c. They are just as likely 
to trample on one as the other, notwithstanding. There was 
Lamartine, the prince of the class, who mouthed so finely about 
international rights ; and yet it has come out that he was just as 
ready as king or kaiser to march an army into Italy to take a 
material guaranty for — liberty. See the exhibition of Thackeray 
at Oxford, 1 and yet he expressed sympathy to me and Bright at 
the Reform Club during the war. Then there is his great con- 
trast, Dickens, forever writing of his desire to elevate the masses 
and to put down insolence in high places. I saw a note from him 
in which he refused to sign a petition for the repeal of the taxes 
on knowledge, on the express ground that he would not promote 
a deluge of printer's ink in England similar to what he had seen 
in America. The most reliable politicians are your wiry logicians 
of the Jefferson or Calhoun stamp. They may be liable to false 
starts, but when once you know their premises you can calculate 
their course and where to find them." 

" Miclhurst, June 6. {To Mr. Ewart.) — I must confess the 
proceedings of your Hon. House have done much to reconcile me 

1 At a bye-election for Oxford city (July 21) Mr. Thackeray stood against the 
present Lord Cardwell, and failed by the narrow difference of 67, in a gross poll of 
2103. 



446 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

to my rustication, for its tone is subservient even to sycophancy. 
We have had the ' Barebones Parliament,' the ' Long Parliament,' 
the ' Unlearned Parliament,' but the present ought to be named 
the ' Servile Parliament.' From such an assembly I confess I am 
not sorry to be excluded. There has always been until now a 
body of men, sometimes more and sometimes fewer in the House, 
who counted themselves for something better than Whigs or 
Tories, and who were bent on securing something for the public 
as the price of their support of the more Liberal section of the 
aristocracy. These men, whether numbering thirty or eighty, 
were the pioneers of every good work. As a party they seem no 
longer to have an existence in this Parliament. When they re- 
appear, and the public have recovered their taste for earnest 
politics, I hope I shall be of their number; but till then the 
House of Commons would not suit me, or I suit it." 

"Dec. 3. {To Mr. Moffatt.) — It is very kind and friendly in 
you, as usual, to think of me. This post has also brought a letter 
from Lancashire, saying some of the leaders at Ashton would wish 
me to succeed to poor Hindley. But I have resolved neither 
to stand nor sit for any place ; and this resolution will certainly 
be adhered to for a year, probably for the rest of my working 
days. I am not sulking or shamming, but ac inj' from motives of 
a personal nature, and which no political c ns- derations will be 
sufficiently powerful to overcome. If half a dozen constituencies 
were to offer to return me free of expense I should decline them 
all. I shall be glad, should you at any time hear of any move- 
ment in my favor, if you will discourage it, without giving me 
occasion to offer explanations which are painful to me. The 
truth is, I cannot leave home for forty-eight hours, and preserve 
that tranquillity and elasticity of spirit which is necessary to 
success in public life. Under the circumstances, I am therefore 
useless anywhere but in my family. There might have been a 
state of things, indeed there has been, when I sacrificed every 
domestic consideration for public duty ; but there is now no mo- 
tive or justification for my doing so." 

The actual life of the House of Commons, which has invincible 
attractions for so many men, seems to have had no particular 
charm to Cobden. At the beginning of the session of 1857 he 
described to a friend the disagreeable effect upon him of bad air 
and long speeches. " I don't know whether you feel yourself 
similarly affected by the air of the House, but after sitting there 
for two or three hours I find my head useless for any other purpose 
but aching. I find my brain throbbing, as though it were ready 
to burst ; and the pain returns upon me as soon as I awake in the 
morning. It seems as if the air were dried and cooked to such 
an extent as to rob it of its vital properties. My reasoning 
powers are in abeyance while under the roof of the House, and 



Mt. 53.] THE INDIAN MUTINY. 447 

if the symptoms continue and no remedy be called for by others, 
likely to effect a change, I shall seriously consider whether I ought 
to continue to hold a trust which I am rendered physically and 
mentally incapable of fulfilling." 

" I came, away on Tuesday," he continues, " after listening for 
two hours and a half to Disraeli. I wish there could be some 
Bessemer's power invented for shortening the time of speaking in 
the House. My belief, after a long experience, is that a man may 
say all that he ought to utter at one ' standing ' in an hour, ex- 
cepting a budget speech or a government explanation, when 
documents are read. The Sermon on the Mount may be read in 
twenty minutes ; the Lord's Prayer takes one minute to repeat ; 
Franklin and Washington never spoke more than ten minutes at 
a time." 

In the autumn of 1857 there was some prospect of a vacancy 
for the borough of Finsbury, and a movement was started in favor 
of Cobden as a candidate. Nothing came of it, and it is doubt- 
ful, as we shall presently see, whether at that moment his private 
interests would have allowed him to return to public life. In the 
beginning of 1858 he received one of the pleasantest of social 
compliments, in his election as a member of the Athenaeum Club 
by the special favor of the Committee. In the course of the 
same year his brother, Frederick, died at Dunford. He had 
suffered such excruciating torture for some time past that to 
himself death was almost welcome, but Cobden may well have 
felt a sharp pang at the loss of one to whom he had been all his 
life bound by the ties of so affectionate an intimacy. 



CHAPTEK XXVIL 

THE INDIAN MUTINY — PEIVATE AFFAIRS — SECOND JOURNEY 
TO AMERICA. 

The elections had barely taken place before the country was 
thrilled from end to end as it had been on no occasion before, by 
the appalling horrors of the Indian Mutiny. Cobden had always 
watched the affairs of this great dependency with jealous and 
unfriendly eye. As a military and despotic government ; as an 
acquisition of impolitic violence and fraud ; as the seat of unsafe 
finance ; for these and other reasons, he had always taken his 
place among those, and they were much fewer then than they are 
now, who cannot see any advantage either to the natives or their 
foreign masters in this vast possession. He had said as much in 
the House of Commons so far back as 1853, when the renewal of 



448 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

the Company's Charter was under discussion. When the Mutiny 
came, then, like every one else, he said he could think of nothing 
else. Three or four of his letters will be enough to show what 
he had to say upon the most hideous occurrence in our history. 

" Midhurst, Oct. 16, 1857. {To Mr. Ashworth.) — I thought I- 
could have withdrawn myself for a time from public affairs, but 
every Indian mail quite overturns my resolution, and weans me 
back from my farm and my household, and makes me as much a 
politician in thought and feeling as ever. And yet I confess to 
you that this crisis in the East makes me very grateful for the 
accident which released me from my Parliamentary duties, and 
thereby relieved me from the necessity of making any public 
declaration of opinion on the subject ; for the more I reflect on 
it, the less do I feel able to take any part which would harmonize 
with the views and prejudices of the British public. 

" I am, and always have been, of opinion (see the enclosed 
extract from Hansard) that we have attempted an impossibility 
in giving ourselves to the task of governing one hundred millions 
of Asiatics. God and his visible natural laws have opposed in- 
superable obstacles to the success of such a scheme. But if the 
plan were practicable at the great cost and risk which we now see 
to be inseparable from it, what advantage can it confer on our- 
selves ? We all know the motive which took the East India 
Company to Asia — monopoly, not merely as towards foreigners, 
but against the rest of their own countrymen. But now that the 
trade of Hindostan is thrown open to all the world on equal 
terms, what exclusive advantage can we derive to compensate for 
all the trouble, cost, and risk of ruling over such a people ? — a 
people which has shown itself, after a century of contact with us, 
to be capable of crimes which would revolt any savage tribe of 
whom we read in Dr. Livingstone's narrative, and which had 
never seen a Christian or European till he penetrated among 
them. 

" The religious people who now tell us that we must hold India 
to convert it, ought, I should think, to be convinced by what has 
passed that sending red coats as well as black to Christianize a 
people is not the most. likely way to insure the blessing of God 
on our missionary efforts. 

" I am aware that it is quite useless to preach these doctrines 
in the present temper of the people of this country ; but if forced 
to appear in public to offer my opinion on the topics of the day, 
I could not ignore this greatest of all texts, and therefore I cling- 
to my shell here because I know that this is not the moment to 
give utterance to my ideas with any chance of doing go6d. 

" Unfortunately for me I can't even co-operate with those who 
seek to ' reform ' India, for I have no faith in the power of England 
to govern that country at all permanently ; and though I should 



^Et. 53.] THE INDIAN MUTINY. 449 

like to see the Company abolished — because that is a screen 
between the English nation and a full sight of its awful responsi- 
bilities — yet I do not believe in the possibility of the Crown 
governing India under the control of Parliament. If the House 
of Commons were to renounce all responsibility for domestic legis- 
lation, and give itself exclusively to the task of governing one 
hundred millions of Asiatics, it would fail. Hindostan must be 
ruled by those who live on that side of the globe. Its people will 
prefer to be ruled badly — according to our notions — by its own 
color, kith and kin, than to submit to the humiliation of being 
better governed by a succession of transient intruders from the 
antipodes. 

" These, however, are, I confess, opinions of a somewhat abstract 
kind, and not adapted for the practical work of the day. What 
is to be done now ? Put down the military revolt in justice to 
the peaceable population, who are at the mercy of the armed 
mutineers. It is our duty to do so. We can do it, and I have 
no doubt it will be done. But then comes our difficulty. With 
the experience of the present year we can never trust a native 
force with arms again, with the feelings of security which we 
formerly indulged. Who will live in the interior of India, in 
future, beyond the range of our forts or the sound of the regimen- 
tal drum ? Certainly no one with wife and children to love and 
care for. Yet we cannot possibly administer the affairs of that 
country without a native force, and we are now actually raising 
an army of Sikhs, the most warlike of our subjects in all Asia, 
whom we disarmed when we took possession of the country, and 
of whom Lord Dalhousie said, in a letter, not ten years ago, that 
every man was against us ! 

" No ; there is no future but trouble and loss and disappoint- 
ment and, I fear, crime in India, and they are doing the people of 
this country the greatest service who tell them the honest truth 
according to their convictions, and prepare them for abandoning 
at some future time the thankless and impossible task." 

" August 24. (To Mr. Bright.) — If we could meet, I should 
be glad to have a whole week's adjourned debates on public 
matters with you ; and I could write you long letters too, but 
somehow I always feel myself restrained by the fear that my 
correspondence does you harm by keeping the brain needlessly 
on the old scent. I wish you to discard politics from your 
thoughts ; how then can I with consistency dose you with my 
political speculations ? Besides, to tell you the truth, I can find 
nothing very cheerful to remark upon in relation to public matters. 
The proceedings of the House have ceased to interest me ; and 
when I glance at the conclusion of the reports, and sometimes 
read ' adjourned at a quarter to three o'clock,' I hug myself with 

29 



450 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

delight at the recollection that I am not one of the dramatis 
personam of the humiliating performance. 

" The only subject that binds my attention fast to the news- 
papers is this horrible Indian business. There has been nothing 
in history since the St. Domingo revolt to compare in fiendish 
ferocity with the atrocities by the Sepoys upon the women and 
children who have fallen into their hands. One stands aghast 
and dumfouudered at the reflection that, after a century of inter- 
course with us, the natives of India suddenly exhibit themselves 
greater savages than any of the North American Indians who 
have been brought into contact with the white race. It is clear 
that they cannot have been inspired with either love or respect 
by what they have seen of the English. There must be a fierce 
spirit of resentment, not unmixed with contempt for the ruling 
class, pervading the native mind. From the moment that I 
had satisfied myself that a feeling of alienation was constantly 
increasing with both the natives and the English (we had some 
striking evidence to this effect before our Committee in 1853), 
I made up my mind that it must end in trouble sooner or later. 
It is impossible that a people can permanently be used for their 
own obvious and conscious degradation. The entire scheme of 
our Indian rule is based upon the assumption that the natives 
will be the willing instruments of their own humiliation. Nay, 
so confident are we in this faith, that we offer them the light of 
Christianity and a free press, and still believe that they will not 
have wit enough to measure their rights by our own standard. 

" Chance has thrown me in the society of some ladies who 
have lately returned from India, where they were accustomed to 
barrack life, their husbands being officers in native regiments. I 
find the common epithet applied to our fellow-subjects in Hin- 
dostan is nigger. One of these ladies took some credit for her con- 
descension in allowing a native officer, answering to the rank of a 
subaltern, to sit down in her presence when he came for orders to 
her husband. All this might have been borne, though with diffi- 
culty, if the English with whom the natives came in contact dis- 
played exalted virtues and high intellectual powers. But I fear 
the traits most conspicuous in our countrymen have been of a 
very different character. A low morale and an absence of men- 
tal energy have been the most conspicuous faults of the British 
officers, and the business of the regiments has more and more fallen 
into the hands of the natives. What is now witnessed in India — 
the assassination and massacres on one side, and the wholesale 
executions on the other — must forever perpetuate and deepen 
this feeling of alienation. 1 

1 Almost on the very same day Lord Elgin wrote in his Journal : — "It is a terri- 
ble business, this living among inferior races. I have seldom from man or woman 



iEr.53.] THE INDIAN MUTINY. 451 

" I can see nothing but increased difficulties in future in conse- 
quence of the almost indiscriminate slaughter with which every 
commissioned officer and his drum-head court are visiting the 
Sepoys that fall into their power. . Unless this is persevered in 
until the 100,000 mutineers are hung up, the only effect will be 
to convert those who escape into worse assassins and incendiaries 
than before. How are we to maintain despotic sway in future 
over 100,000,000 of Asiatics (for it must be undisguised despotism 
henceforth) and preserve our own freedom at home ? Will it be 
possible to find a sufficient number of recruits in England to keep 
up a sufficient army for this purpose ? 

" These are questions that I shall not answer at present, but I 
confess to you that I have no faith in the doctrine that by any 
possible reforms we can govern India well, or continue to hold it 
permanently. God and nature have put a visible and insuperable 
obstacle in the way of our rash and audacious scheme. And if it 
be true, as even Voltaire believed it to be, that there is ' un Dieu 
retributeur et vengeur,' the deeds perpetrated by the British in 
times past, and still more the bloody deeds now being enacted, 
and which all arise from our own Original aggression upon distant 
and unoffending communities, will be visited with unerring jus- 
tice upon us or our children. But I am sinning against my own 
rule in thus venting my croakings upon you 

" P. S. You hint at the possibility of Manchester taking me in 
case of poor Potter's death. I don't think the offer will ever be 
made, but I am quite sure that there is no demonstration of the 
kind that would induce me (apart from my determination not at 
present to stand for any place) to put myself in the hands of the 
people who without more cause then than now struck down men 
whose politics are identically my own. To confess my honest 
belief, T regard the Manchester constituency, now that their gross 
pocket question is settled, as a very unsound, and to us a very 
unsafe body." 

" September 22. ( „ ) — I am glad to see your handwriting 
again. Although I knew our minds were busy in one and the 
same direction, yet I abstained from sending you my cogitations, 
for I was fearful of adding fuel to fire. These Indian horrors give 
me a perpetual shudder. The awful atrocities perpetrated upon 
women and children almost give rise to the impious doubt whether 
this world is under the government of an all- wise and just Provi- 
dence. What crime had they committed to merit the infliction 
of tortures and death ? Verily the sins of the fathers have been 

since I came to the East heard a sentence which was reconcilable with the hypothe- 
sis that Christianity had ever come into the world. Detestation, contempt, ferocity, 
vengeance, whether Chinamen or Indians be the object." — Lord Elgin's Journals, 
p. 199. (August 21, 1857.) On March 29, 1858, there is a similar entry:— " The 
truth is that the whole world just now are raving mad with a passion for killing 
and slaying." 



452 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857. 

visited on the children to the third and fourth generations ! And 
how can it be otherwise in the case of a nation ? For if a collect- 
ive crime be perpetrated, and a community be visited with retribu- 
tive justice, even an hour after the commission of the deed, those 
who have entered life in the interval must participate in the pen- 
alty. We can see that it must be so, but not that it ought to be. 

" These fiendish outrages upon the defenceless — the propen- 
sity displayed in so many places to unparalleled cruelties — have 
amazed me more than anything that ever occurred in my time. 
We have read of something of the kind in St. Domingo, in the 
French Revolution, and in the revolt of the Polish peasants, but in 
our time nothing like it has happened, and I would not have be- 
lieved that any tribe of men which had been in contact with civ- 
ilized life could have committed such barbarities. But we seem in 
danger of forgetting our own Christianity, and descending to a level 
with these monsters who have startled the world with their deeds. 
It is terrible to see our middle-class journals and speakers calling 
for the destruction of Delhi and the indiscriminate massacre of 
prisoners. Leaving humanity out of the question, nothing could 
have been more impolitic than the wholesale execution of common 
soldiers with which we attempted from the first to put down the 
rebellion. Had it been a mutiny of a company or a regiment, it 
would have been of doubtful policy to hang or blow from the guns 
all the privates concerned. But when an entire army of 100,000 
men have planted the standard of revolt, it is no longer a mutiny, 
but a rebellion and civil war. To attempt to hang all that fall 
into our power can only lead to reprisals and wholesale carnage 
on both sides. 

" Did you observe that the men who swam ashore at Cawnpore 
after the boats, in which were the garrison who had been promised 
a safe passage, had been treacherously sunk, were blown from the 
guns on successive days, no doubt in imitation of our treatment 
of the Sepoys ? To read the letters of our officers at the com- 
mencement of the outbreak, it seemed as if every subaltern had 
the power to hang or shoot as many natives as he pleased, and 
they spoke of the work of blood with as much levity as if they 
were hunting wild animals. The last accounts would lead one 
to fear that God is not favoring our cause, and that too many of 
our countrymen are meeting the fate which was intended for the 
natives. 

" But the future — what is in the distance ? The most certain 
and immediate result is that we shall have a bankrupt empire of 
150 millions of people on our backs. The end of this year will 
leave the Company minus not much short of 100 millions ster- 
ling, including guaranteed railways, &c. And then comes all the 
sacrifices of life and treasure which we shall make to put down 
the rebellion and reconquer India. And nobody asks what benefit 



Mt. 53.] THE INDIAN MUTINY. 453 

we shall derive from our success ! You know my opinion of 
old : that I never could feel any enthusiasm for the reform of our 
Indian Government, for I failed to satisfy myself that it was pos- 
sible for us to rule that vast empire with advantage to its people 
or ourselves. I now regard the task as utterly hopeless. Eecent 
and present events are placing an impassable gulf between the 
races. Conquerors and conquered can never live together again 
with confidence or comfort. It will be a happy day when Eng- 
land has not an acre of territory in Continental Asia. But how 
such a state of things is to be brought about, is more than I can 
tell. I bless my stars that I am not in a position to be obliged to 
give public utterance to my views on the all-absorbing topic of 
the day, for I could not do justice to my own convictions and pos- 
sess the confidence of any constituency in the kingdom. For 
where do we find even an individual who is not imbued with the 
notion that England would sink to ruin if she were deprived of 
her Indian Empire ? Leave me, then, to my pigs and sheep, 

which are not laboring under any such delusions " 

" October 18. (To Colonel Fitzmayer.) — Do we find that Gov- 
ernment and Parliament acquit themselves so well in domestic 
matters that they have a surplus of efficiency and energy for 
Hindostan ? Shall we give education to India, or reform its 
criminals, or abate its crime, or moderate its religious bigotry 
and intolerance ? Can we do these things at home ? If a Board 
of Works can't give us a common sewer for London, is it likely 
to cover India with canals for irrigation ? If Catholic and Prot- 
estant can't live together in Belfast, excepting under something 
like martial law, are we the people to teach Christian charity and 
toleration to the Hindoos ? With such views as mine, what am 
I to do in public life in the midst of all this excitement and en- 
thusiasm for reconquering and Christianizing India ? I confess I 
think myself lucky that I can, with a fair plea, exempt myself 
from the task of speaking at all in public on the subject, for not 
having the responsible trust of M. P., I am not bound to shock 
people with my sentiments. For a politician of my principles 
there is really no standing-ground. The manufacturers of York- 
shire and Lancashire look upon India and China as a field of 
enterprise which can only be kept open to them by force, and in- 
deed they are willing, apparently, to be at all the cost of holding 
open the door of the whole of Asia, for the rest of the world to 
trade on the same terms as themselves. How few of those who 
fought for the repeal of the Corn Law really understand the full 
meaning of Free Trade principles ! If you talk to our Lancashire 
friends they argue that unless we occupied India there would be 
no trade with that country, or that somebody else would monop- 
olize it, forgetting that this is the old protectionist theory which 
they used formerly to ridicule. India was a great centre and 



454 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1857- 

source of commerce for the civilized world before Englishmen 
took to wearing breeches, and it was the renown of its wealth and 
productiveness which first attracted us there. I am by no means 
so clear as some people, that we have added greatly to its com- 
merce. Certainly the trade of European countries has increased 
in a greater ratio than that of India during the last century. 

"However, I have wearied you with my abstractions. The 
practical business in hand is to put down the military mutiny, 
which, in justice to our own subjects, we are bound to do. I fear 
that in the process we shall familiarize ourselves with deeds of 
blood which may tend to make us a cruel and sanguinary nation, 
and then God help Bolton or Oldham, if some clay from sudden 
suffering its passionate multitude should set the middle classes 
and their Horse Guards at defiance ; for assuredly then they who 
now cry for the destruction of Delhi would not be less merciful 
to the bricks and mortar of Lancashire." 

" Nov. 22. {To Mr. White, the Member for Brighton.) — .... 
You have seized upon the most important of our social and politi- 
cal questions in the laws affecting the transfer of land. It is as- 
tonishing that the people at large are so tacit in their submission 
to the perpetuation of the feudal system in this country as it 
affects the property in land, so long after it has been shattered to 
pieces in every other country except Eussia. The reason is, I 
suppose, that the great increase of our manufacturing system has 
given such an expansive system of employment to the population, 
that the want of land as a field of investment and employment 
for labor has been comparatively little felt. So long as this pros- 
perity of our manufactures continues, there will be no great 
outcry against the landed monopoly. If adversity were to fall on 
the nation, your huge feudal properties would soon be broken up, 
and along with them the hereditary system of government under 
which we contentedly live and thrive. When I was travelling on 
the Continent, I found among the thinking part of the population 
in France, Italy, and Germany, a great feeling of surprise that the 
men who had abolished the Corn Laws had not also abolished the 
monopoly of land ; and they were quite puzzled, and almost in- 
credulous, when I told them that there was little feeling against 
our custom of primogeniture even among the rural population of 
England. Another reason may help to account for our indiffer- 
ence to the subject. We have been taught to consider our colo- 
nies as an outlet for the population, and this not by a process of' 
expatriation to a foreign land, but by emigration to other parts of 
our own territory. Then there is our insular vanity, that scorns 
to follow the example of other countries and that lays us open to 
the influence of flattery, of which John Bull will accept any 
quantity, however coarsely laid on, in place of more substantial 
payment of what is honestly his due." 



iE-r. 53.] THE INDIAN MUTINY. 455 

" London, May 16, 1858. (To G. Combe.) — . ... I have come 
to London for a few weeks, and have brought my wife and little 
girls. We have been staying with our friends in a succession of 
visits, and I have seen a little of the politicians from whom I have 
been so long separated. 

" I am afraid our national character is being deteriorated, and 
our love of freedom in danger of being impaired by what is pass- 
ing in India. Is it possible that we can play the part of despot 
and butcher there without finding our character deteriorated at 
home ? Were not the ancient Greeks and Eomans corrupted and 
demoralized by their Asiatic conquests, and may we not share 
their fate, though in a different way ? Then comes the question 
which you have so ably put in your letter. ' What possible bene- 
fit can we derive from our Indian conquests ? ' I confess I take 
a gloomy view of our prospects in that quarter. The English 
people will not give up Hindostan, any more than they did North 
America, without years of exhausting war. 

" It is more and more my conviction that the task of govern- 
ing despotically 150 millions of people at a distance of twelve 
thousand miles cannot be executed by a constitutional Govern- 
ment. It ought to be done, if at all, by a despot, whose rule is 
concentrated, and less liable to personal changes than our rep- 
resentative forms admit. With a change of Government every 
six or twelve months it is impossible that we can have a continu- 
ous plan or a real responsibility. Since I have been in London, 
I have heard scarcely a word about the best mode of governing 
the millions of India. The only talk is about the chance of turn- 
ing out one Ministry and bringing in another." 

"March 28. (To Mr Gilpin.) — What a pretentious and hypo- 
critical people we are in our dealings with the outside world ! 
How we abuse and bully King Bomba because he will not govern 
his lazzaroni according to our notions of constitutionalism ! But 
when you propose to apply a little of our love of liberty to our 
own fellow-subjects in India, ' Oh ! oh ! ' is the reply you meet with 
in the House. Yet you would have no difficulty in carrying the 
cheers of the said House for any proposal to put the slaves in 
America or Cuba immediately on the same political level as their 
masters. This nation will meet with a terrible check some day, 
unless it makes a little better progress in the science of self- 
knowledge." 

" October 30. ( „ ) — .... Is Klapka gone ? He mentioned 
to me in conversation some views about our Indian massacres of 
private men, that I should like to be allowed to quote some day. 
I remember he expressed himself as a soldier with some disgust 
on the subject. He said the indiscriminate destruction of rank 
and file was unprecedented in modern times, and he stated that 
anybody accustomed to armies knew that when a whole regiment 



456 . LTFE OF COBDEN. [1858. 

or army fell from its allegiance, the great body of the privates 
really took no active part, that they went with the officers as a 
matter of instinct, and that perhaps with the exception of a few 
violent ringleaders the rest hardly knew anything about it. In 
some cases a minority would in their hearts be opposed to the 
mutiny, but they had no choice but go with the rest. He argued 
that to slay all alike in the field or on the gallows was terrible." 

A few months before this, Cobden had felt for an instant that 
he would have liked to be in the House. Mr. Gibson, who had 
found a seat at Ashton-under-Lyne, beat Lord Palmerston on the 
Conspiracy to Murder Bill (Feb. 20), and the Minister who had 
returned to power in triumph eleven months before, suddenly 
saw himself compelled to resign. "When I read," said Cobden 
to Mr. Lindsay, "the account of Bright and Gibson walking up 
to the table of the House to pass sentence upon that venerable 
political sinner, I could not help thinking what a fine historical 
picture the artist missed. There was surely something more than 
chance in bringing back these two men to inflict summary punish- 
ment on the man who flattered himself a few months ago that he 
had put his heel on their political necks. For the first time I felt 
regret at not being there to witness that scene of retributive 
justice." 

On the feeling between England and France which had arisen 
in connection with the circumstances of the Conspiracy to Murder 
Bill, he wrote to his friend, Michel Chevalier : — 

" July 13. — It is useless, our pursuing the tu quoque argument, 
otherwise I should remind you that our estrangement has all sprung 
out of the unfortunate course pursued by your Government at the 
time of the Orsini horror. Never did your Emperor fall into such 
a mistake as to seek to widen the responsibility of that mad out- 
rage by making it the ground of domestic legislation of a re- 
strictive character and of diplomatic negotiation, requiring fresh 
safeguards from foreign Governments : all which assumed that 
others besides those frenzied Italians were plotting against his life. 
To assume that assassination had sympathizers in England, France, 
or elsewhere, was an insult to humanity. His policy should have 
been the very opposite. He should have thrust aside the inju- 
dicious advisers who recommended such a course, and should have 
loudly proclaimed his belief that men of all nations would equally 
join in condemning the devilish act : and he should have placed 
himself under the protection of that sentiment of horror which 
was universally entertained, whilst he might have frankly owned 
that his life, like that of every other man, was at the mercy of 
those who chose to cast off all the restraints of reason, religion, 
and humanity. Such a course as this, narrowing the responsi- 
bility of the atrocious act to those who were its wicked authors, 
would have attracted the sympathy of the whole civilized world. 



jEt. 64.] PRIVATE AFFAIRS. 457 

But it is useless now to dwell on these reminiscences. I hope the 
really gallant conduct of our Queen in paying a visit to Cherbourg, 
and thus giving a slap in the face to those mischievous fools who 
are constantly raising the cry of a French invasion, will have the 
effect of soothing all the irritation on your side." 

The second Administration of Lord Derby was formed, and Mr. 
Lindsay asked for Cobclen's view of the new political situation. 
In reply he once more preached a sermon on the old text. 

" March 23. — ' The present men are more honest, and they 
are certainly more obliging than the last.' In this I agree with 
you, and it might have been said of any Tory Government as com- 
pared with any Whig one since I have been in the political ring. 
I remember when I came into the House in 1841, after the gen- 
eral election which gave Peel a majority of ninety, I found the 
Tories more civil in the intercourse of the lobbies and the refresh- 
ment-rooms than the Whigs. It runs through all departments. It 
seems as if the Whig leaders always thought it necessary to snub 
the Eadicals, to satisfy the Tories they were not dangerous poli- 
ticians. But I do not blame them, for they live by it. I do blame 
those advanced Liberals who allow themselves to be thus used and 
abused. There is no remedy but in the greater self-respect of the 
middle class. I fear we have been going the other way for the 
last ten years. The great prosperity of the country made Tories 

of us all During my experience the higher classes never 

stood so high in relative social and political rank, as compared with 
other classes, as at present. The middle class have been content 
with the very crumbs from their table. The more contempt a 
man like Palmerston (as intense an aristocrat at heart as any of 
them) heaped on them, the louder they cheered him. Twenty 
years ago, when a hundred members of the House used to muster 
at the call of Hume or Warburton to compel the Whigs to move 
on under threats of desertion, there seemed some hope of the 
middle class setting up for themselves ; but now there is no such 
sign 

" You ask me my view of the political situation. It is hard 
fate for me to be obliged to choose between Derby and Palmerston, 
but if compelled to do so, I should certainly prefer the former. 
Nothing can be so humiliating to us as a party or a nation as to 
see that venerable political impostor at the head of affairs. But 
how will you prevent his return to power ? . . . . Half a dozen 
great families meet at Walmer and dispose of the rank and file 
of the party, just as I do the lambs that I am now selling for your 
aldermen's table. And I very much doubt whether you can put 
an end to this ignominious state of things. Until you can, I 
don't think you are playing a part in any noble drama." 

During this period of withdrawal from active public life, Cob- 
den was greatly harassed by private anxieties. As there was 



458 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1858. 

always much ill-natured gossip about his affairs, it is well to state 
the facts as they were. With a portion of the proceeds of the 
national testimonial Cobden, as we have already seen, had pur- 
chased the little property which had belonged to his forefathers. 
The rest, or most of the rest, he had invested in the shares of an 
American railway. The Illinois Central is the great line from 
North to South, with its headquarters at Chicago, taking its course 
right through the centre of the rich valley of the Mississippi, and 
joining the great river itself at Saint Louis, Cairo, and New Or- 
leans. Very large tracts of the finest alluvial soil in Illinois were 
ceded to the company on each side of the line. The company 
therefore had two sources of profit, one arising from the sale of 
the lands, the other from the traffic on the line itself, which in 
grain was very large and daily increasing. Such property was 
clearly a legitimate investment to persons who, if more capital 
were called up than was at first anticipated, could afford to meet 
the calls upon their shares without inconvenience. 1 With a man 
in Cobden's position the case was different. In this matter, how- 
ever, he was not disposed to listen to the advice of his friends, 
who recommended him only to hold bonds or paid-up shares. " I 
recollect," says Mr. W. S. Lindsay, " having many conversations 
with Cobden on this subject. I agreed with him entirely as to 
the prospects of the line, but we differed as to the time when 
the large prospective profits of the undertaking could be realized. 
He thought they were close at hand ; I, on the contrary, held the 
opinion that, while all the land would in time find purchasers, 
they would rather belong to the next generation than to our own. 
In this instance my views came true. The land found purchasers, 
but not to the extent nor with the rapidity anticipated. The 
directors had calculated that the proceeds from the sale of the 
lands would enable them to complete the line, and consequently 
render further calls upon the shareholders unnecessary. In this 
they were mistaken." 

" Cobden," Mr. Lindsay goes on to say, " viewed his investments 
in an entirely different light from that in which they would be 
seen by an ordinary man of business. He thought of the over- 
crowded cities of Europe, and of the masses of people who on this 
side of the Atlantic were seeking, or about to seek, new homes in 
the far West. His mind surveyed at a glance the vast expanse of 
rich, unoccupied virgin land in the mighty valley of the Missis- 
sippi, through which the Illinois Central ran its course, — a valley 
where millions of people from the old world could find profitable 
employment. He was aware of the great and rapidly increasing 
facilities which would enable the intending emigrant to reach this 
most tempting field at less cost than their fathers could have trav- 
1 The 100 dollar ordinary shares were lately at 150, and are now 138. 



M'£. 54.] PRIVATE AFFAIRS. 459 

elled from Glasgow to London ; and for these reasons he came to 
the conclusion that the demand for the company's land would be 
both great and immediate, and the money derived from the sale 
would be more than sufficient to complete all the works connected 
with the railway. But Cobden was no speculator in the ordinary 
sense of the word." 

In a letter to Mr. Moffatt, with whom he was in constant corre- 
spondence on the subject at this time, Cobden shows how conscious 
he was of the view which a hard-headed man of business would 
be likely to take of what he was doing. At the beginning of 
1858, Mr. Osborn, the Chairman of the Bailway, was in England, 
and visited him at Dunford. 

" Osborn was so candid with me," Cobden writes, " so disinter- 
ested and friendly in his advice, that I could not help suspecting 
that a very good friend of mine had whispered in 'his ear some- 
thing to this effect. ' Say nothing to feed his sanguine views. 
He has already become tete monUe about the Illinois ; but rather 
throw in a word of caution about putting too many eggs in one 
basket. He is a worn-out agitator, out of business, with a young 
family. Such people ought not to become speculators. As a rule 
your public men, and especially your revolutionary leaders, make 
unsuccessful men of business. They look too high and too far, 
and others who fire at a shorter range beat them in the field. 
Besides, they look at things too much in the gross, neglect details, 
and disregard the element of time, which in speculation is every- 
thing. Here is Cobden dealing with Illinois Central as if they 
were going to yield him a profit next quarter-day. Warn him 
that it will take many years to realize all his expectations.' Am I 
not right in my surmise ? " 

Whether the surmise was right or not, it is clear that the in- 
vestment, however sound, was not a prudent one for a man who 
had no spare capital, and who needed income. Cobden was 
greatly inconvenienced by outstanding loans which were raised to 
pay the calls. In connection with them, it is for the honor of 
human nature that we should mention an extraordinary example 
of grateful and considerate munificence. The late Mr. Thomasson 
of Bolton, hearing from Mr. Slagg, their common friend, that Cob- 
den was embarrassed by one of these outstanding loans for the 
Illinois shares, amounting to several thousand pounds, released 
the shares and sent them to Cobden, with a request that he would 
do him the favor to accept their freedom at his hands " in ac- 
knowledgment of his vast services to his country and mankind." 
On a later occasion, when the same difficulty recurred for the same 
reasons, Mr. Thomasson went down to Midhurst, ascertained the 
circumstances, and insisted that Cobden should accept a still 
larger sum, refusing a formal acknowledgment, and handing it 



460 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1858. 

over in such a form that the transaction was not known to any- 
one but Cobden and himself. After Mr. Thomasson's death, there 
was found among his private papers a little memorandum of his 
advances, containing these magnanimous words : " I lament that 
the greatest benefactor of mankind since the Inventor of printing 
should be placed in a position where his public usefulness is com- 
promised and impeded by sordid personal cares ; but I have done 
something as my share of what is due to him from his countrymen 
to set him free for further efforts in the cause of human progress. 
My children will hereafter be proud that their father at all events 
recognized his claims. Their fortunes are to a great extent the 
result of Eichard Cobden's sacrifices." 

It was in connection with the Illinois Railway that Cobden 
made his second voyage to the United States. He went on behalf 
of other English shareholders to examine the line and its manage- 
ment on the spot. He remained in the country for three months. 
Everything that he saw delighted him. The material and moral 
progress since his visit in 1835 realized all his expectations. "It 
is the universal hope of rising in the social scale," he told Mr. 
Bright, "which is the key to much of the superiority that is visi- 
ble in this country. It (accounts for the orderly self-respect which 

is the great characteristic of the masses in the United States 

All this tends to the argument that the political condition of a 
people is very much dependent on its economical fate." 

So far as the immediate object of his journey went Cobden de- 
clared himself to be more than satisfied. " As respects the. main 
question," he wrote to his wife, " as to the ultimate success of the 
undertaking, I have no doubt whatever that it will prove the best 
railroad investment in America. But unfortunately it does not 
suit me to wait, and nearly all I have is at stake." In another 
letter to Mrs. Cobden he writes : " My thoughts are much with you 
and the dear children. I feel great anxiety to know that you are 
settled. Everything has gone as unluckily as possible with me. 
I sometimes feel almost unnerved, great as is my energy and nat- 
ural buoyancy." As we shall see presently, the clouds vanished 
quickly from his spirit, as soon as ever he saw a piece of useful 
work to be done. 



Mi. 55.] RETURN FROM AMERICA. 461 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

RETURN FROM AMERICA. — THE NEW MINISTRY. 

During Cobden's absence, great events came to pass in the parlia- 
mentary world. Mr. Disraeli introduced his Eeform Bill (Feb., 
1859), which included the famous "fancy" franchises, and the 
use of voting papers. The Conservatives did not like the Bill, and 
two of their most respected leaders, Mr. Henley and Mr. Walpole, 
quitted the Ministry rather than be parties to it. The Whigs 
objected to it as an encroachment on their own political preserves. 
Mr. Bright denounced it as absurd and irritating, disturbing every- 
thing and settling nothing. The Government were defeated by 
a majority of thirty-nine in a house of six hundred and twenty- 
one members. They dissolved Parliament three weeks after- 
wards, and the writs for its successor were issued before the end 
of April. 

The men of Eochdale met and resolved to choose Cobden as the 
Liberal candidate. Mr. Bright went to their meeting and com- 
mended to them his " political associate, his political brother," in 
a manly and cordial record of Cobden's past career. Cobden had 
told him that he would rather sit for Eochdale than for any other 
borough in England ; for Eochdale Liberalism, he said, had heart 
enough in it " to back up a man against the aristocratic section 
of the legislature." Cobden was eventually returned without a 
contest. 

When the elections were over the Conservatives claimed to 
have gained twenty-nine seats, but this was not enough to se- 
cure them against a union of the various sections of the Oppo- 
sition. The day before the assembling of the new Parliament 
(June 6) those sections held a conference at Willis's Eooms, 
settled their differences with one another, and devised a vote of 
want of confidence as an amendment on the Address. This vote 
was moved the next night by Lord Hartington, and was carried, 
after a debate which lasted three nights, by a majority of thirteen 
in a house of six hundred and forty-three (June 10). The Gov- 
ernment immediately resigned. 

Before the meeting at Willis's Eooms, the two chiefs whose 
rivalry had so long weakened party organization had come to an 
understanding that either would consent to serve under the other. 
The Queen was unwilling to settle the question between " two 



462 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

statesmen so full of years and honors," and sent for a younger and 
less experienced man. But Lord Granville, after making an attempt 
to form a Ministry, resigned a task in which it had never been 
possible for him to succeed. Lord Palmerston was designated for 
the first post by a voice which the sovereign of a free country cannot 
pretend to ignore. All difficulties disappeared before his incom- 
parably strong political position, and within five days of the defeat 
of the fallen Government Lord Palmerston had completed his list, 
with the exception of one post. This post was reserved for Cob- 
den, then known to be on his way home. 

The following is the letter which was despatched by the new 
Prime Minister to meet him on landing at Liverpool : — 

" 94, Piccadilly, 27th June, 1859. 

" My dear Sir, — I understand that it is likely that you may 
arrive at Liverpool to-morrow, and I therefore wish that this letter 
should be placed in your hands upon your landing. 

" I have been commissioned by the Queen to form an Adminis- 
tration, and I have endeavored so to frame it, that it should contain 
representatives of all sections of the Liberal party, convinced as 
I am that no government constructed upon any other basis could 
have sufficient prospect of duration, or would be sufficiently satis- 
factory to the country. 

" Mr. Milner Gibson has most handsomely consented to waive all 
former difficulties, and to become a member of the new Cabinet. 
I am most exceedingly anxious that you should consent to adopt 
the same line, and I have kept open for you the office of President 
of the Board of Trade, which appeared to me to be the one best 
suited to your views, and to the distinguished part which you have 
taken in public life. I shall be very glad to see you, and to have 
personal communication with you as soon as may be convenient 
to you on your arrival in London, and I am, 

" My dear Sir, 

" Yours faithfully, 

" Palmerston." 

The invitation was supported by a letter which was sent at the 
same time by Lord Palmerston's most important colleague : — 

"diesham Place, June 25th, 1859. 

"My dear Mr. Cobden, — Lord Palmerston will have written 
to you to offer you a seat in his Cabinet. 

" An attempt has been made, more or less wisely, to form a gov- 
ernment from various sections of Liberals. Recent speeches have 
prevented the offer of a cabinet office to Mr. Bright. This is 
much to be regretted ; but if you accept, his accession may take 



Mr. 55.] RETURN FROM AMERICA. 463 

place hereafter. If you refuse, I do not see a prospect of amalga- 
mating the Liberal party during my lifetime. 

" In these circumstances I confess I think it is a duty for you 
to accept the office of President of the Board of Trade. 

" I remain, 

" Yours faithfully, 

"J. Eussell." 

Cobden arrived in the Mersey on June 29, and in a letter written 
the next day to Mrs. Cobden, described what happened : — 

"Manchester, June 30, 1859. — I had but a moment yesterday in 
Liverpool to apprise you of my safe arrival in England. As I 
came up the Mersey, I little dreamed of the reception which 
awaited me. Crowds of friends were ready to greet and cheer me • 
and before I left the ship a packet of letters was put in my hand, 
containing one from Lord Palmerston, offering me a seat in the 
Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade, and another from Lord 
John Eussell, urging me in the very strongest terms to accept it. 
There were letters from Moffatt, Gilpin, and a great many others, 
advising me not to refuse the offer. 

" I was completely taken by surprise by all this, for I had heard 
nothing of the change of government, and was twenty-five days 
without having seen the latest news from England, namely eleven 
days' passage, and fourteen days which we were behind the news 
when I left Quebec. 

" I went on shore and proceeded to the hotel, where my troubles 
began. More than a hundred of the leading men of Liverpool 
assembled in the large room to present me with an address, which 

was put into my hand by Mr. William Brown Afterwards 

Mr. Eobertson Gladstone, from the Financial Eeform Association, 
Mr. Eathbone, from the American Chamber of Commerce, and the 
President of the Peace Society, all presented addresses, to which 
I was obliged, without a moment's notice, and with my head still 
swimming with the motion of the sea, to deliver replies. It was 
really like killing one with kindness. I have come on here [to 
Manchester] to see my friends, and hear what they have to say. 
A deputation from Eochdale is over also. And I have an address 
from a number of persons, including Bazley and H. Ash worth, wish- 
ing me to accept the offer of a seat in the Cabinet. Indeed, almost 
without exception, everybody, Eadicals, peace men, and all, are 
trying to persuade me to it. 

" Now it really seems to me that they must all have gone mad, 
for with my recorded opinions of Lord Palmerston's public con- 
duct during the last dozen years, in which opinions I have experi- 
enced no change, were I suddenly to jump at the offer of a place 
under him, I should ruin myself in my own self-respect, and 



464 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

* 

ultimately lose the confidence of the very men who are in this 
moment of excitement urging me to enter his Cabinet. So great 
is the pressure put on me, that if it were Lord Granville, or even 
Lord John, at the head of affairs, I should be obliged, greatly 
against my will, to be a Eight Honorable. But to take office now, 
without a single declaration of change of view regarding his public 
conduct, would be so monstrous a course, that nothing on earth 
shall induce me to do it. I am going to town this afternoon, and 
shall forward him my answer on my arrival. I listen to all my 
friends and say nothing, but my mind is made up." 

On arriving a day or two later in London, Cobden lost no time 
in calling upon Lord Palmerston. He wrote a full account of all 
that passed between them to Mr. Sale, his brother-in-law in 
Manchester. 

" London, 4th July, 1859. — I thought it best on my arrival in 
town to go first to Palmerston, and explain plainly and frankly 
everything. On calling on him I was most pleasantly welcomed, 
and we talked as usual for a few minutes on everything but what 
I went about. At length I broke the ice in this way. ' You have 
acted in so manly and magnanimous a manner in pressing me to 
take office in your Cabinet, that I feel bound to come and talk to 
you without reserve upon the subject. My case is this. For the 
last twelve years I have been the systematic and constant assail- 
ant of the principle on which your foreign policy has been carried 
on. I believed you to be warlike, intermeddling, and quarrelsome, 
and that your policy was calculated to embroil us with foreign 
nations. At the same time I have expressed a general want of 
confidence in your domestic politics. Now I may have been 
altogether wrong in my views ; it is possible I may have been, 
but I put it candidly to you whether it ought to be in your 
Cabinet, whilst holding a post of high honor and emolument 
derived from you, that I should make the first avowal of a change 
of opinion respecting your public policy ? Should I not expose 
myself to severe suspicions, and deservedly so, if I were under 
these circumstances to step from an Atlantic steamer into your 
Cabinet ? Understand, I beg, that I have no personal feelings 
which prevent me from accepting your offer. I have opposed you 
as the supposed representative of what I believed to be dangerous 
principles. If I have ever been personally offensive in my oppo- 
sition it was not intended, and assuredly you never gave me any 
justification for such a course.' 

" In reply he disclaimed any feelings of a personal kind, and 
said that even if there had been any personalities, they never 
ought to be remembered for three months ; and he added in a 
laughing way that he thought Gibson had hit him quite as hard 
as I had. Then he commenced to combat my objections, and to 



jEt. 55.] THE NEW MINISTRY. 465 

offer, with apparently great sincerity, a variety of arguments to 
show that I ought to enter the Cabinet, dwelling particularly 
on the fact that as questions of foreign policy were now upper- 
most, and as those questions were in the hands of the Executive, 
it was only by joining the Government that I could influence 
them. 'You and your friends complain,' he said, 'of a secret 
diplomacy, and that wars are entered into without consulting the 
people. ISTow it is in the Cabinet alone that questions of foreign 
policy are settled. We never consult Parliament till after they 
are settled. If, therefore, you wish to have a voice in those ques- 
tions, you can only do so in the Cabinet.' This was the argument 
I found it most difficult to answer, and therefore he pressed it 
most strongly. 

" But finding me still firm in my objections, he observed laugh- 
ingly, 'Why are you in the House of Commons?' I answered 
also with a laugh, ' Upon my word I hardly know.' ' But why 
did you enter public life ? ' said he. ' I hardly know,' was my 
answer ; ' it was by mere accident, and for a special purpose, and 
probably it would have been better for me and my family if I 
had kept my private station.' Upon which he threw out both 
his hands, and, with a laugh louder than before, he exclaimed, 
' Well, but being in it, why not go on ? ' He added, ' Eecollect I 
don't offer you the seat from any desire of my own to change my 
colleagues. If left to me, I would of course rather have gone on 
as before with my old friends. I offer you the seat because you 
have a right to it.' 

" In answer to my remark c that perhaps others might be found 
quite as much entitled as myself to represent the advanced Liberals 
in his Government, he replied quickly, ' Will you be good enough 
to mention the name of any one excepting Bright, Gibson, and 
yourself, that I could bring into the Cabinet as the representative 
of the Eadicals ? ' I urged that Bright had been unfairly judged, 
and that his speeches at Birmingham, &c, were not of a kind to 
exclude him from an offer of a seat, and I remarked that he had 
very carefully avoided personalities in those speeches. ' It is not 
personalities that are complained of ; a public man,' said he, ' is 
right in attacking persons. But it is his attacks on classes that 
have given offence to powerful bodies, who can make their resent- 
ment felt.' 

" In the course of his remarks he gave me a full explanation of 
his views on the present war, and expressed his determination 
to preserve a strict neutrality, observing that, as the people of 
England would as soon think of ' evacuating these islands ' as to 
go to war in behalf of Austria, and as France did not ask us to help 
her, he could not see any possibility of our being mixed up in the 
fray. On this point he remarked : — 'If you are afraid of our 

30 



466 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

abandoning our neutral ground, why don't you come into the 
citadel of power, where you could have a voice in preventing it ? ' 

"On his remarking upon the difficulty there would be in carry- 
ing on the Government unless all parties were united, and how 
impossible it was for him to do so if the natural representatives 
of the Liberals would not take office, I replied that the very fact 
of his having offered me office was, so far as I was concerned, his 
justification ; and that / should be blamed, and not he, in the 
matter. And I added, ' I shall give just the same support to your 
Government whilst Mr. Gibson is in it, who represents identically 
my views, as I should if I were one of your Government : for I 
should be certain to run away, if you were to do anything very 
contrary to my strong convictions.' I added that at present there 
were only two subjects on which we could have any serious dif- 
ference, and that if he kept out of the war, and gave us a fair 
Eeform measure, I did not see any other point on which I should 
be found opposing him. He returned to the argument that my 
presence in the Government was the important step required ; 
and I then told him that having run the gauntlet of my friends 
in Lancashire, who had kindly pressed the matter on me, and 
having resolved to act in opposition to their views, which nothing 
but the strongest convictions of the propriety of my course could 
have induced me to do, my mind was irrevocably made up. And 
so I rose to depart, expressing the hope that our personal and 
political relations might be in future the same as if I were in his 
Government. 

" As I left the room he said, ' Lady Palmerston receives to- 
morrow evening at ten ? ' To which' I instantly replied, ' I shall 
be happy to be allowed to present myself to her.' ' I shall be 
very glad if you will,' was his answer, and so we parted. 

"The next evening I was at Cambridge House for the first 
time, and found myself among a crowd of fashionables and politi- 
cians, and was the lion of the party. The women came and 
stared with their glasses at me, and then brought their friends to 
stare also. As I came away, Jacob Omnium and I were squeezed 
into a corner together, and he remarked, ' You are the greatest 
political monster that ever was seen in this house. There never 
was before seen such a curiosity as a man who refused a Cabinet 
office from Lord Palmerston, and then came to visit him here. 
Why, there are not half-a-dozen men in all that crowd that would 
not jump at the offer, and believe themselves quite as fit as you 
to be President of the Board of Trade.' 

" I never had before so much annoyance to my feelings as in 
this matter. To be pressed by nearly all my friends to take a 
course which I felt from the first moment to be impossible, was 
a most painful ordeal to go through. I don't remember any 



^t. 55.] THE NEW MINISTRY. 467 

political occurrence which ever before made me ill. This has 
really upset my physical health. However, I hope my friends 
will on reflection do me justice, and believe that I acted consci- 
entiously. Certainly all the ordinary motives of human nature 
would have led me to come to quite another conclusion." 

This conclusion caused deep chagrin to many, perhaps to most, 
of those with whom he had been most closely associated. His 
friends in the north were excited and elated by the circumstance 
that one of their own number, a middle-class manufacturer, had 
at length penetrated the sacred enclosure of the oligarchy. In 
France all the best men were infinitely delighted by the honor 
that had been paid to one to whom they were accustomed to look 
up as the champion of progress and political morality. They 
dreamed that his presence in the Cabinet would be a guaranty 
for conciliatory ideas in the Government. They were greatly 
disappointed at the issue. M. Chevalier accepted Cobden's rea- 
sons ; but he protested against any absolute and systematic 
resolution on Cobden's part never to take office. " When a man 
has mixed himself up in public affairs," he said, " with so much 
superiority and success as you have had, then the public has a 
certain claim upon him, and the exercise of this claim is the 
demand that he shall take part in the government of the coun- 
try." 

There was one eminent man, however, who earnestly approved 
of the step that had been taken. Mr. Bright declared that he 
had never been more clear of anything than that Cobden looked 
at the matter in a true light ; and he thought that a few months 
would prove this to be so. We now know that Mr. Bright's 
sagacity was not at fault. Almost from the first the new Cabinet 
espoused the policy of suspicion and alarm, and within the few 
months of which Mr. Bright had spoken, we shall find Cobden 
writing to Lord Palmerston and Lord John, with a vehemence of 
protest and conviction which he could under no circumstances 
have controlled, and which would have made his position in the 
Government desperate. It is true that to one powerful member 
of that Cabinet its military policy, now and after, was as abhor- 
rent as it was to Cobden himself ; who wrestled with his con- 
science by day and by night as to the morality of his position ; 
and who only escaped from his own reprobation by the hope that 
in a balance of evils he had chosen the course which led to the 
less of them. If Cobden had been sitting by Mr. Gladstone's 
side at the council table during the first half of 1860, would they 
together have been able to resist Lord Palmerston and Lord John 
Eussell, supported by the body of the Cabinet, and encouraged 
by the excited suspicions of the great bulk of the nation ? To 
put the question is to answer it Lord Palmerston was quite 



468 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

strong enough at that moment to do without Cobden, and even 
without Mr. Gladstone, if Mr. Gladstone, yielding to a moral 
pressure which, as we shall see, Cobden unsparingly applied to 
him when the time came, had refused to remain an accessory, 
and had left the Government. If Cobden had taken office at 
Midsummer, he would certainly have been out of it by Christ- 
mas. 

Beneath solid considerations of this kind, there was probahly 
an unspoken sense of a loss of personal dignity and self-respect 
that would follow official subordination to a Minister of whom 
he had thought and spoken so ill as he had thought and spoken 
of Lord Palmerston. When Macaulay supposed in the crisis of 
1845 that there was a chance of his being invited to take office 
under Sir Eobert Peel, he said : " After the language which I 
have held respecting Peel, and which I am less than ever disposed 
to retract, I feel that I cannot without a loss of personal dignity, 
and without exposing myself to suspicions and insinuations that 
would be insupportable to me, hold any situation under him." 1 
There is always sure to be too little rather than too much of this 
honorable sensibility in public life. Cobden was perfectly justi- 
fied in disclaiming all personal feeling about Lord Palmerston, 
but his repugnance to the sentiments, traditions, and methods of 
which Palmerston was the representative, was the deepest part 
of his nature, and it was ineradicable. The instinct was surely 
sound which told him that something would be lost to the integ- 
rity of his political character and conscience, if he allowed the 
seeming expediency of the hour to tempt him into an alliance 
with a system that he had always denounced, and with men who 
had all their lives been committed to it heart and soul. Other 
people would in the long run have felt the same thing about him. 
The moral influence of character is the most delicate of all forces. 
It is affected by subtle and almost imperceptible agencies, of 
which logic is far too rough an instrument to take any account. 
The idea which men had, and still have, of Cobden's simplicity, 
independence, and conviction, would inevitably have been tar- 
nished if he had accepted a post under one, to whom the beliefs 
and the language of a lifetime made him the typical antagonist. 

This was what was in Cobden's mind when he said, " I have a 
horror of losing my individuality, which is to me as existence 
itself." His position in the League had shown that nobody was 
less open than he to the charge, of inability to act with others, — 
that fatal sign of mediocre capacity. But a more fatal sign of a 
worse moral mediocrity is the ability to act with the first comer. 
Cobden was of all men the most stanch and most flexible mem- 

1 Trevelyan's Life, ii. 163. 



'JEt.65.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 469 

ber of an alliance, but be was scrupulously careful in cboosing 
who bis allies should be. He was right in thinking that be 
should not find one after bis own heart either in Lord Palmer- 
ston, or among many of the colleagues with whom Palmerston 
was likely to provide him. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

THE FRENCH TREATY. 

In the summer of 1859 M. Michel Chevalier paid a visit to Eng- 
land, which led to one of the most important chapters in the life 
of Cobden, as well as to a very important episode in the relations 
between England and France. To M. Chevalier, Eree Trade was 
an article of religious conviction. In his early manhood he had 
been one of that truly remarkable band of men who between 1830 
and 1840 devoted themselves to the principles of Saint Simon, to 
propagating them in every country from the Seine to the Nile, and 
to carrying them out in their own lives and persons with the fer- 
vid enthusiasm of the first followers of Saint Francis. It was 
they who first succeeded in setting industrial questions before 
political ones in French opinion ; and though their organization 
split upon the rock of certain theocratic fantasies, the wide social 
views connected with it remained deeply stamped on their minds. 
They made a definite impression in France, and prepared the way 
for the events of 1848. So early as 1832 M. Chevalier had shown 
the bias of his views by a paper on the Mediterranean system, 
proposing the construction of railways throughout Europe on a 
scale which then seemed chimerical enough. In this he dwelt 
upon the facilities that would be offered for travelling from one 
country to another, and how these facilities "would speedily 
break down the barriers of ancient prejudice, remove hereditary 
animosities, and firmly cement nation to nation in a lasting 
peace." 1 The Suez Canal was another favorite idea with these 
far-seeing men ; for one of the most striking things about them 
was that they united to their mystic enthusiasm, as their lives 
afterwards proved, practical faculties of the highest and most val- 
uable kind. Free exchange exactly fitted in with their notions 
of promoting international union by increasing the pacific inter- 
course of nations. 

1 See Mr. A. J. Booth's Saint Simon and Saint Simonism (Longman, 1876), 
p. 169 — an excellent account of an extraordinary movement. 



470 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

In the session of 1859 Mr. Bright in a speech in the House of 
Commons incidentally asked why, instead of lavishing the national 
substance in armaments, they did not go to the French Emperor 
and attempt to persuade him to allow his people to trade freely 
with ours. 1 M. Chevalier, after reading this speech, was inspired 
by the idea of a Commercial Treaty between England and France, 
and he wrote to Cobden in this sense. Coming to England shortly 
afterwards, he found that Cobden had arranged, for family reasons, 
to pass a portion of the winter in Paris. He immediately saw an 
opening, and urged Cobden to seize the opportunity for converting 
the Emperor, as fifteen years earlier he had so powerfully aided 
in converting the English public, to the policy of Fre,e Trade, and 
to as near an execution of that policy as the circumstances of a 
country still in the stage of prohibition could permit. 

These ideas made so strong an impression on Cobden that he 
grew eager to discuss them with the only statesman in the high 
official world with whom he felt conscious of deep moral and 
political sympathy. What made the idea of a Treaty possible, 
moreover, was that in the following year terminable annuities to 
the amount of upwards of two millions would fall in, and the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer would have that amount of taxation 
to deal with. If the Minister could be induced to entertain the 
idea of a Treaty, he would by means of such a surplus be able to 
make that reduction in the duties on French articles which the 
French would regard, and insist upon, as a price for a transforma- 
tion of their own prohibitive system. In the early part of Sep- 
tember, Cobden paid a visit to Hawarden, and there he opened 
his mind to Mr. Gladstone. They were both of them thoroughly 
alive to the objections to which on strictly economic grounds 
treaties of commerce must always be open. They both felt it to 
be perfectly true, if economic rules were never under any circum- 
stances to be contravened, that, as Mr. Blight had already said, it 
was our business to look to our own tariffs, and to release French 
products from the duties that prevented our trading with France ; 
and this without any stipulation as to what France should do in 
return. But then they felt that the occasion was one which could 
not be judged in this simple way. An economic principle by itself, 
as all sensible men have now learnt, can never be decisive of any- 
thing in the mixed and complex sphere of practice. Neither 
Cobden nor Mr. Gladstone could resist the force of M. Chevalier's 
emphatic assurance, that in no other way could the French tariff 

1 The idea was in the air. In a conversation with Lord John Russell, Count 
Persigny expressed a wish, as an earnest of the sincerity of the Emperor's desire 
for peace, for a Commercial Treaty between Great Britain and France, by which 
France might be enabled to lower her protective duties. — Martin's Life of the 
Prince Consort, iv. 470. 



Mc. 55.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 471 

be altered in the direction of Free Trade than through a diplo- 
matic act, that is to say, a commercial treaty with England. The 
Emperor, moreover, in spite of his absolutist system, was practi- 
cally powerless to reduce his duties, unless the English Govern- 
ment gave him the help of a corresponding movement on their 
side. 

Mr. Gladstone discerned both the opportunity which such a 
movement would afford for continuing the great work of tariff 
reform, and the strong influence that a commercial treaty would 
have upon the violent and dangerous perturbations in the political 
sentiment of the two nations towards one another. His powerful 
imagination was kindled, and he had the first dawn of that fine 
vision which he revealed to the public in the famous budget 
speech of the following February. He was, in fact, continuing the 
work which Sir Eobert Peel had begun in 1842, along the very 
lines which Peel had then expressly laid down. In the case of 
wine and brandy, Sir Eobert Peel had said that he did not reduce 
the duty, because he hoped that they might employ these duties 
" as instruments of negotiation, with a view of effecting a reduction 
in the duties imposed by other countries on the produce of our 
own* country." "I am not disposed," Peel said, "to carry too far 
that principle of withholding from ourselves the benefits of reduc- 
tion of duties in order to force other nations to act in a reciprocal 
manner, and in many cases we weakened the effect of instruments 
we held in our own hands by reducing the duty of articles relative 
to which negotiations might have been entered into. Our general 
rule was that in cases where the articles were elements of manu- 
facture, or where there was risk from smuggling, we took to our- 
selves the advantage likely to arise from a reduction of duty on 
these articles ; but in others, wine for example, we mad£ no reduc- 
tion of duty, and intend to make no reduction of duty, in the hope 
that we - shall induce other countries to give to us an equivalent 
advantage." 1 The discussion therefore between Mr. Gladstone 
and Cobden at Hawarden in 1859 turned upon the means of real- 
izing the hope then expressed by Sir Eobert Peel, in 1843, and 
expressed by him not casually, but as an element in a deliberate 
policy. 

Cobden's first suggestion had been that, as he was about to 
spend a part of the winter in Paris, he might perhaps be of use 
to Mr. Gladstone in the way of inquiry. Conversation expanded 
this modest proposal into something more definite and more ener- 
getic. It was thought that, if he had the tacit and informal 
authority of the British Government, he might put himself into 
communication with the Emperor and his Ministers, might bring 

1 Feb. 17, 1843. 



472 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

to bear upon them his well-tried powers of persuasion and conver- 
sion, and might work out with them the scheme of a treaty which 
would give au occasion for a great fiscal reform in both countries. 
and in both countries would produce a solid and sterling pacifica- 
tion of feelings. 

This was the plan with which Cobden quitted Hawarden. He 
was not confident of success, for he knew that he would have to 
deal with governments, and he had little faith in either the cour- 
age or the disinterestedness of governments. When he started 
on the expedition, he had written in no sanguine vein to Mr. 
Bright : — " Governments seem as a rule to be standing conspira- 
cies to rob and bamboozle people, and why should that of Louis 
Napoleon be an exception ? The more I see of the rulers of the 
world," he added, in amplification of a famous saying, " the less 
of wisdom or greatness do I find necessary for the government of 
mankind." 

When he reached London he found that the Ministers had 
been summoned for a Cabinet Council. He called upon Lord 
Palmerston and Lord John Russell, and discussed M. Chevalier's 
notions with them. " It is not easy," he wrote to Mr. Bright, " to 
interest men whose foreign policy has been running in such dif- 
ferent grooves, in questions of political economy and tariffs. But 
I spoke frankly to both of them as to the state of our relations 
with France, and disparaged the value of an alliance in China, or 
any other pretended entente cordiale, whilst we were keeping up 
twenty-six millions of armaments, principally as a defence against 
France." 

" From what I hear," he continued, " the Cabinet is concerned 
with the mighty question whether France is to take a bit of terri- 
tory from Morocco. We are, I suppose, to protest from Gibraltar 
against anything so shocking to us as picking and stealing our 
neighbor's territory going on within view of that reputable pos- 
session of ours. We have taken a whole empire from a Mahome- 
tan sovereign in Asia, and we are horrified at France taking a 
province in the same latitude from a Mahometan sovereign in 
Africa. For my part, if France took the whole of Africa, I do not 
see what harm she would do us or anybody else save herself." 1 

It will one day seem incredible that two keen and patriotic 
statesmen of the eminence which Lord Palmerston and Lord John 
Russell held in the public esteem, should at this stage of our his- 

1 The source of the uneasiness in Downing' Street was the dispute between Spain 
and Morocco, as to the boundaries of the Spanish territory round Ceuta. "It is 
plain," Lord Palmerston wrote to Lord John Russell, " that France aims through 
Spain at getting fortified points on each side of the Gut of Gibraltar " — with the 
ultimate view of " shutting us out of the Mediterranean." (Ashley's Life, ii. 374.) 
The inference as to the designs of France is a masterpiece of the perverse ingenuity 
of the Palmerstonian policy of alarm. 



.Et.55.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 473 

toiy have so misconceived the relative importance of things, as to 
think the very remotest doings of any foreign government a mat- 
ter of real and primary importance, and an extension of our trade, 
however vast it might promise to be, a matter so purely secondary 
as hardly to be worth an hour's serious attention. At a Lord 
Mayor's dinner, or at a meeting at Manchester, each of them often 
uttered the stereotyped sentences about commercial prosperity 
being the basis of British greatness. But neither of them had 
what religious writers call a living sense of the extent to which 
such words were true. They were really thinking all the time of 
strong despatches and spirited representations. The commercial 
and industrial movements of our own country, and the relations 
of government to them, were treated as objects for men of the 
third or fourth order in the political system. What is curious is, 
that while devoting such passionate attention to foreign affairs, 
no men ever seem to take so little pains as ministers of this 
stamp to keep themselves abundantly and accurately informed of 
what really goes on in foreign countries, what forces are at work 
under the trite words of diplomatic agents, what amount of sub- 
stance throws those shadows about which they write and speak 
so many busy sentences. 

Although, however, he received no cheerful encouragement from 
either the Prime Minister or the Foreign Secretary, Cobden was 
not forbidden to proceed on the mission that he had volunteered. 
On October 18 he arrived in Paris, and on the 23d he went to see 
Lord Cowley at Chantilly. They had a long conversation, in the 
course of which the English Ambassador gave the Emperor a high 
character for straightforwardness, and a strict adherence to his 
word in all his engagements with Lord Cowley himself. Two 
days later, Cobden, M. Chevalier, and M. Eouher dined together. 
The Minister had been very uneasy lest the fact of his interview 
with Cobden should get abroad, and I have heard that the dinner 
was planned with as much secrecy and discretion as if they had 
been three housebreakers under the surveillance of the police. 

M. Eouher, who was then Minister of Commerce, professed 
strong Free-trade views, and was thoroughly won round by Cob- 
den's exposition of the well-known list of Protectionist subterfuges. 
He made no secret that it was the Emperor only who on every 
question gave the initiative to his Minister. If he could be in- 
duced to reform his customs duties, M. Eouher would be a very 
willing instrument in promoting his plans. The next step, and 
the greatest, was to convince the Emperor. The Minister under- 
took to procure an invitation, and two days later (October 27) Cob- 
den went to St. Cloud to have his first audience. It was not the 
first time that they had seen one another. Cobden had met Louis 
Napoleon at breakfast at Mr. Monckton Milnes's three days after 



474 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

the escape from Ham in 1846. He had then set the Prince down 
for a very mediocre person indeed. He did his best to remember 
that he was now talking to quite a different personage, but was 
not sure that he always succeeded. Cobden kept a full journal of 
the events of the negotiation, and the following is his account of 
the first interview with the convert who was of paramount im- 
portance : — 

"After a few remarks upon the subject of the improvements 
in Paris, and in the Bois de Boulogne, and after he had ex- 
pressed his regret at my not having entered the Ministry of Lord 
Palmerston, the Emperor alluded to the state of feeling in Eng- 
land, and expressed his regret that notwithstanding he had for ten 
years given every possible proof of his desire to preserve the friend- 
ship of the British people, the press had at last defeated his pur- 
pose, and now the relations of the two countries seemed to be 
worse than ever. He appealed to me if he had ever done one act 
to justify the manner in which he was assailed by our press. I 
candidly told him that I thought the Governments of both coun- 
tries were to blame. He asked what he could do more than he 
had already done to promote the friendly relations of the two 
countries. 1 This led to the question of Free Trade, and I urged 
many arguments in favor of removing those obstacles which pre- 
vented the two countries from being brought into closer depend- 

1 In the letter which he wrote on the occasion to Lord Palmerston (Oct. 29, 1859), 
Cobden gave a rather fuller account of this preliminary part of the conversation :— 
" The Emperor began the conversation after a few introductory remarks, by com- 
plaining of the English Press. I told him that I had myself been accused of every 
crime almost by the Press (including an attempt at murder), and that I had learnt 
to laugh at it. He continued this topic by asking me to point out a single act dur- 
ing the ten years he had been in power, which had not been dictated by a desire to 
stand well with England, and to keep the two countries in a state of harmony and 
friendship ; but the Press had completely defeated his object. After reminding him 
that I had blamed, both in Parliament and in public meetings, the attacks made in 
England on the Government of France, I said that he should bear in mind that his 
name, which had such a charm in the cottages of France, had still a sound which 
carried a traditional alarm into our houses, and that this feeling was worked upon 
by those who for their own ends persuaded the people that he intended to repeat the 
career of his uncle. With some excuses, I ventured to add that the way in which 
he had entered on the war in Italy, without a previous expose des motifs, had given 
great force to their persuasion. He interrupted me by saying that he had explained 
his reasons. I told him that what I meant was that he had not appealed to the 
world with a manifesto of his grievances and objects, and that if he had done so, 
from what I knew of the opinion in England and America, where the Austrian Gov- 
ernment had hardly a friend, the feeling would have been so universally in his favor 
that a war would not have been necessary. But the suddenness and secrecy with 
which this great war was entered upon alarmed people lest the same thing should 
be repeated. After some further conversation about the state of feeling, which I 
admitted was very bad, if not perilous, in England, and which he said was brought 
to such a state in France that he seemed to be almost the only man friendly to Eng- 
land left, I expressed an opinion, very frankly, that the Governments of both coun- 
tries, professing as they did to be friendly, would be responsible, if not blamable, 
were nothing done to try to put an end to this state of things." 



J3T.5B.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 475 

ence on one another. He expressed himself as friendly to this 
policy, but alluded to the great difficulties in his way ; said he 
had made an effort by admitting iron in bond for ship-building, 
which he was obliged to alter again, and spoke of the sliding 
scale on corn which had been re-imposed after it had expired. 
I spoke of the opportuneness of the present moment for making a 
simultaneous change in the English and French tariffs, as there 
was a prospect of a surplus of revenue next year, owing to the ex- 
piry of our terminable annuities, and that Mr. Gladstone was very 
desirous to make this surplus available for reducing duties on 
French commodities. Louis Napoleon said he had a majority of 
his Chambers quite opposed to Free Trade, and that they would 
not pass a decided measure ; that by the constitution he could alter 
the tariff by a decree, if it were part of a treaty with a foreign 
power ; and he asked me whether England would enter into a 
commercial treaty with him. I explained that we could give no 
exclusive privileges to any nation ; that we could simultaneously 
make reductions in our tariffs ; and the alterations might be in- 
serted in a treaty, but that our tariff must be equally applicable 
to all countries. He said he was under a pledge not to abolish 
the prohibitive system in France and substitute moderate duties, 
previous to 1861. I told him that I saw no obstacle in this to a 
treaty being entered into next spring, for that the moral effect 
would be the same even if the full operation of the new duties 
did not come into play for two or three years. He asked me to 
let him know what reductions could be made in our tariff upon 
articles affecting his country, which I promised to do. He then 
inquired what I should advise him to do in regard to the French 
tariff. I said I should attack one article of great and universal 
necessity, as I had done in England, when I confined all my ef- 
forts to the abolition of the corn-laws, knowing that when that 
clef-de-voute was removed, the whole system would fall. In 
France, the great primary want was cheap iron, which is the daily 
bread of all industries, and I should begin by abolishing the duty 
on iron and coal, and then I should be in a better position for ap- 
proaching all the other industries ; that I would, if necessary, pay 
an indemnity in some shape to the iron-masters, and thus be en- 
abled to abolish their protection immediately — a course which I 
should not contemplate following with any other commodity but 
iron and coal. He spoke of the danger of throwing men out of 
work, and I tried by a variety of arguments to convince him, es- 
pecially by a reference to the example of England, that the effect 
of a reduction of duties is to increase, not diminish, the demand 
for labor. I showed that in England we had much machinery 
standing idle in consequence of the want of workmen at the pres- 
ent time ; and in order to allay his fears of an inundation of Brit- 



476 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

ish products, to throw his own people out of work, I explained 
that there was not an ounce of our productions which was not al- 
ready bespoken, and that it would take a long time to increase 
largely our investment of capital, whilst it was impossible to pro- 
cure any considerable addition to our laborers. On my giving 
him a description of the reforms effected by Sir Eobert Peel, and 
the great reverence in which his name is held, he said, ' I am 
charmed and flattered at the idea of performing a similar work in 
my country ; but,' he added, ' it is very difficult in France to make 
reforms ; we make revolutions in France, not reforms.' 

" The Emperor is short in stature and very undignified ; I 
never saw a person with fewer heroic traits in his appearance 
and manner. But there is nothing harsh or even cold in the 
expression of his countenance. His eye is not pleasant at first, 
but it warms and moistens with conversation, and gives you the 
impression that he is capable of generous emotions. 

" The approach to the Palace of Saint Cloud was thronged with 
military, both horse and foot. I entered the building, and passed 
through an avenue of liveried lacqueys in the hall, from which I 
ascended the grand staircase, guarded at the top by sentries, and 
I passed through a series of apartments hung with gorgeous 
tapestry, each room being in charge of servants higher in rank as 
they come nearer to the person of the sovereign. As I surveyed 
this gorgeous spectacle, I found my thoughts busy with the recol- 
lection of a very different scene which I had looked upon a few 
months before at Washington, when I was the guest of the Presi- 
dent of the United States, a plain man in a black suit, living in 
comparative simplicity, without a sentry at his door or a livery 
servant in his house." 

In writing of this important interview to Mr. Bright, Cobden 
says (Nov. 17, 1859): — 

" I had a full hour's private talk at St. Cloud with Louis Napo- 
leon. He knew I had taken the unpopular line in opposing the 
invasion cry. He is not unmindful of such acts of fairness, and 
I felt myself not only tolerated but encouraged to talk, with just 
as much frankness as I could to you or any other equal. In 
reply co his strong complaints against the English press, I told 
him that the course he had taken in beginning the Italian war 
suddenly, and without publishing a manifesto of his grievances to 
the world, had alarmed the public mind of Europe ; that not only 
England but Germany was arming to the teeth ; and that this was 
all in reference to himself, and from the fear that he contemplated 
repeating the career of his uncle. I told him that there was but 
one way of removing 'this impression, and that was by a bold meas- 
ure of commercial reform ; that there was only a choice between 
the policy of Napoleon I. and the policy of Sir Eobert Peel. On 



JEt.56.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 477 

this point, I used every argument, to make it appear that it was his 
interest to begin the work at once ; quoted the complete success 
of our experiment ; and pointed to the fame of Sir Eobert Peel, 
and the veneration in which his memory was held, as stimulants 
for his honorable ambition. I found his sympathies strongly with 
us, but he is ignorant of practical details, and he has consequently 
a great dread of the protectionists. You may be sure I spared no 
pains to take the latter gentry down in his estimation. I never 
had a better private pupil. He is a good listener, and put some 
very pertinent questions. The most remarkable fact respecting 
this man is, that, whilst the press and the popular sentiment at- 
tribute to him the most tortuous and deceptive policy, all who 
have business with him, without exception, give him the char- 
acter of straightforwardness and fairness. This is the testimony 
of Malmesbury, Lord John, and Lord Palmerston, and of Lord 
Cowley to a very high degree indeed. Then, turning to Kossuth, 
who had the cup dashed suddenly from his lips, by the almost 
unaccountable turn in the affairs of the war at Villafranca, he 
distinctly told me that Louis Napoleon did not in the slightest 
degree deceive or betray him. I travelled from Paris to London 
last week with Klapka, who was at the headquarters of the war, 
and he repeated the sentiments expressed by Kossuth. Klapka 
thinks Louis Napoleon has genuine popular sympathies, and 
wound up his remarks on him with the words, ' II n'est pas 
mediant.' " 

The Emperor afterwards expressed himself to M. Fould as 
highly satisfied with the interview. Cobden, he said, had given 
him a little courage. In describing this interview to Lord Palmer- 
ston, Cobden expressed a strong opinion that the Emperor was 
more afraid than he need have been, of the protected interests. 
"I have no doubt that, as you say," Lord Palmerston wrote in 
reply, " the Emperor and his advisers greatly exaggerate the re- 
sisting power of the protectionist classes. But the want of moral 
courage in Frenchmen which you advert to, is confessed even 
by Frenchmen themselves, and it is probably one cause of the 
frequency of political convulsions in France." Napoleon was 
open to the impressions of political fervor. Cobden produced 
upon his mind the same reinspiriting effect which had followed 
in relation to his Italian policy from the memorable interview 
with Cavour in the previous spring. 

M. Fould was the person next to be converted, and Cobden 
succeeded in persuading him that, instead of the timid course of 
replacing a policy of prohibition by a policy of extensive protec- 
tion, the Government would do better boldly to embrace a large 
reform. The protectionists, he very truly said, would offer as 
much opposition to a timid as to a bold scheme, while for a small 



478 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

reform there would be no vigorous popular sympathy or support. 
They went over again the whole question of Free Trade, M. Fould 
using many of the old fallacies about being inundated by British 
goods, laborers being thrown out of work, and so forth. " I had," 
says Cobden, "to give him the first lessons in political economy." 

A day or two afterwards he received from the Emperor an in- 
vitation for himself and his wife to spend four days at Compiegne. 
He declined it on the plea of Mrs. Cobden's health. M. Cheva- 
lier was very anxious that he should go, and Cobden wrote to Mr. 
Bright that he was sorely tempted to accept the invitation, be- 
cause it would have given him a good opportunity of talking to 
the Emperor unreservedly, and without the risk of his audiences 
being reported. It was the Emperor's custom to walk about with 
his guests, and chat with them over his ^interminable cigarettes. 
" If I had been sure," Cobden says, " of converting my pupil into 
a practical Free Trader, I would have gone. But if I failed, the 
fact of my having taken part in those gay festivities would have 
furnished a ready taunt of my having been bought and seduced, 
if I had ever said a word against a French invasion afterwards. 
So it is better as it is." 2 

Ten days were passed in discussions with M. Fould, and con- 
versations with M. Chevalier. There were many vacillations, 
and each day brought its new rumor, for hope or discouragement. 
Cobden's record of some of his interviews with the Minister is 
worth reproducing, because they show the mind of the French 
Government in listening to his arguments, and they show also 
how entirely the French Ministers depended on him for inspira- 
tion and guidance in their new policy. 

Nov. 2. — " M. Fould called ; he seemed preoccupied with the 
uneasy and hostile state of feeling in England against France. 
He regretted that there was no way in which a statesman in 
France could make a public statement in reply to the speeches 
delivered at the late Conservative banquet at Liverpool ; said some- 
thing must be done to allay the uneasiness in the financial and 
commercial world ; and at all events, was glad that the French 
and English Governments had come to an understanding respect- 
ing the joint expedition against China. 2 The officers sent to 
England to arrange this combination of forces had, he said, com- 
pleted their plans satisfactorily in conjunction with the British 
authorities. This warlike alliance has been strenuously sought 

i To J. Bright, Nov. 20, 1859. 

2 By the Treaty of 1858 the European signatories had the right of sending 
amhassadors to Pekin. In June, 1859, the English fleet conveying the envoy was 
resisted at the mouth of the Pei-Ho. Without giving the Chinese an opportunity 
of making reparation, the English and French Government proceeded to organize 
a joint expedition. It was in the course of this (Oct. 6, 1860) that the European 
troops committed the infamy of pillaging and burning the Summer Palace. 



Mi. 55.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 479 

for lately by the French Government under the impression, as I 
believe, that it would tend to promote a more amicable state 
of feeling between the two countries. I told him I had great 
doubts whether this expectation would be realized ; that the war 
against China would not be popular in England ; and the motives 
of each party in going into the alliance would be certain to be 
misinterpreted by the other. ' Yes,' he replied, ' I suppose it will 
be said to be a snare on our part.' He then repeated the words, 
' Something must be done,' and he recurred at last, apparently 
with no great relish, to the subject of a Commercial Treaty with 
England. 

" He saw great difficulties in the way. How, when, and where 
could a negotiation be carried on, and with whom ? He was 
afraid that if a meeting between himself, the Minister of Com- 
merce, M. Eouher, and myself, were to take place, it could not 
be kept a secret ; that at present they had concealed even from 
M. "Walewski, the Foreign Minister, the fact of any conversation 
having taken place between the Emperor, and themselves, and 
me. I spoke of Prince Napoleon, whom M. Fould described as 
quite a sincere opponent of Protection, but he added that he was 
very apt to talk too freely, and that we must be careful how we 
took him into our counsels. I told him that, as regarded the 
negotiations, I was prepared to go into the preliminary discus- 
sion of the changes which should be made in the tariffs of the 
two countries ; that I could, in a short interview or two with him 
and M. Eouher, give them a general idea as to what I thought 
ought to be done by both parties, and that if necessary I thought 
I could obtain Lord Palmerston's authority for acting in the 
matter. He had no objection to make to this. He said he was 
to dine with the Emperor to-morrow ; and all I could gather 
was that he seemed to be in a very timid and undecided state 
of mind. 

" Before parting, I alluded to the state of uneasiness, not only 
in England but on the continent, and reminded him of the great 
increase of warlike preparation which had been going on ; and 
I expressed an opinion that a Bonaparte being on the throne of 
France, who had last spring invaded Italy and fought great 
battles, was the cause of the present feeling of mistrust, and that 
to this fact alone was to be attributed an augmentation of the 
expenditure for defensive armaments in Europe at this moment 
to the amount of twenty millions sterling per annum. He said 
that nothing was farther from the Emperor's thoughts than to 
pursue a warlike policy. I remarked, as he was leaving the 
room, that, so far as I was acquainted with the state of public 
opinion in England, nothing would so instantaneously convince 
the people there of the Emperor's pacific intentions as his enter- 



480 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

ing boldly upon a policy of commercial reform, by which he 
would enable those, who, like myself, took the unpopular side in 
opposing the current of prejudice and hatred which was running 
against him in England, to turn the tables on his accusers and 
detractors. Afterwards I called on Lord Cowley, and explained 
what had passed. He was going to dine to-day with M. Fould. 
The droll part of these interviews, besides the timidity of the 
people, is that here is a government having so little faith or con- 
fidence in one another, that some of its members tie me down, 
a perfect stranger, to secrecy as against their most elevated 
colleagues ! " 

The next day Cobden started for London, where he remained 
for. a week, partly engaged in some private business connected 
with the Illinois Kail way. He saw Mr. Gladstone, who entered 
as heartily as before into the matter. " Gladstone," he said in 
a letter to his trusted friend at Kochdale, " is really almost the 
only Cabinet Minister of five years' standing who is not afraid 
to let his heart guide his head a little at times." He tried to see 
the Foreign Secretary, but failed. " I doubt," he says, " whether 
Lord John is not just now attaching more value to the spirited 
turn of a phrase about Morocco, than to my efforts to lay down a 
commercial cable that shall bind these two great countries together." 
He called on Lord Palmerston, and had a conversation on the 
state of public feeling in France and England. Lord Palmerston 
admitted that the Government of this country had no complaint 
against the Emperor, and no reason to be dissatisfied with his 
conduct, and that there was no unsettled question or ground of 
quarrel between the two countries. But one man had told him 
of a French order for ten thousand tons of iron plating for ships 
of war, and another man had told him of a large order for rifled 
cannons, and a third had talked of some flat-bottomed boats at 
Nantes. All these tendencies to increase his means of aggression 
in case of a desire to attack England, made it necessary, said 
Lord Palmerston, to increase our means of defence. Would it 
not be wiser — this is Cobden's reflection on Lord Palmerston's 
plea, — " to act as private individuals would do in such a case, 
namely, ask an explanation of the meaning of such apparently 
unfriendly proceedings, and offer frankly to explain any acts in 
return, which might have a hostile complexion. But govern- 
ments are opposed to a simplification of their proceedings, or to 
bringing them under those rules of common sense which control 
the acts of every-day individual life." 

On his way back to France, M. de Persigny, the French am- 
bassador, came over from Hastings to Newhaven to discuss with 
him the prospects of commercial reform in France. Cobden 
thought highly of Persigny, spoke of him as "an honest and 



2ET.56.] THE FKENCH TREATY. 481 

warm-hearted " creature, and recognized, as some of the bitterest 
enemies of the group who helped Louis Napoleon to the throne 
have always recognized, that Persigny's devotion to the Em- 
peror would have stood the test of adverse fortune. However 
this may be, there can be no doubt of the French ambassador's 
zeal and sincerity on behalf of the new cause. 

On the 17th of November, Cobden returned to Paris, so ill 
that he at once took to his bed, and was confined to his room for 
some days. Illness, however, did not quench his zeal, and he 
carried on the endless argument with the Ministers in his bed- 
room. It is not necessary to recount the course of negotiations 
from day to day, nor the busy and laborious discussions with 
M. Fould and M. Eouher. On December 9th, M. Chevalier 
informed Cobden that M. Rouher had prepared his plan for a 
commercial treaty, which would be submitted for the Emperor's 
approval on the next day. " There is but one man in the Gov- 
ernment," M. Ptouher had said, " the Emperor, and but one will, 
that of the Emperor." The will of this one man still remained 
uncertain. Lord Cowley, who had been staying at Compiegne 
three weeks before, said the Emperor was strong for a commer- 
cial treaty with England, but since then his language had 
changed. He had once more found out how many difficulties 
were to be overcome. It had become, as he told Lord Cowley, 
" une grosse affaire!' The Emperor had been pressing M. Fould 
as to the precise advantage that France would gain in imitating 
the policy of England. England, said the Emperor, was so de- 
pendent on her foreign trade, that she was constantly in a state 
of alarm at the prospect of war. France, on the other hand, 
could find herself involved in war with comparatively little 
inconvenience. " This remark," says Cobden, to whom it was 
reported, " struck me as disclosing a secret instinct for a policy 
of war and isolation." 

"Lord Cowley," he says in another place, "who knows the 
Emperor so well, smiled at the idea which so generally prevails 
of his being always actuated by some clever Machiavellian scheme, 
when he is often only committing indiscretions from too much 
simplicity, and want of statesmanlike forethought. He repeated 
the opinion which he had expressed before, that ' it is not in him ' 
to have any great plan for a political combination, extending into 
the future, and embracing all Europe." 

Better ideas prevailed at last. M. de Persigny had come over 
from London, to tell his master how hostile and dangerous was 
the state of opinion in England. For the first time in his experi- 
ence, he said, he believed war to be possible, unless the Emperor 
took some step to remove the profound mistrust that agitated the 
English public. The security of the throne, he went on to urge, 

31 



482 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

depended on the English alliance being a reality. So long as 
there was a solid friendship between England and France, they 
need not care what might be in the mind of Eussia, Austria, or 
Prussia. This was the course of reasoning which, in Cobden's 
opinion, finally decided the Emperor. In other words, Napoleon 
assented to the Treaty, less because it was good for the French 
than because it would pacify the English. It was the only avail- 
able instrument for keeping the English alliance. 

M. Eouher presented his plan of a commercial treaty, together 
with sixty pages of illustrative reasoning upon it. The whole 
was read to the Emperor; he listened attentively through every 
page, approved it, and declared his intention of carrying it out. 
He then produced a letter which he had prepared, addressed to 
M. Fould, and intended for publication, in which he announced 
his determination to enter upon a course of pacific improvement, 
to promote the industry of the country by cheapening transport, 
and so forth. 

The project was now disclosed to Count Walewski, the Minister 
for Foreign Affairs, and Cobden was invited to have an interview 
with him. Once more he went over the ground along which he 
had already led Fould, Eouher, and the Emperor. " I endeavored," 
says Cobden, " to remove his doubts and difficulties, and to fortify 
his courage against the protectionist party, whose insignificance 
and powerlessness I demonstrated by comparing their small body 
with the immense population which was interested in the removal 
of commercial restrictions." The discussion with M. Walewski 
was followed by a second interview with the Emperor. 

Dec. 21. — " Had an interview with the Emperor at the Tuileries. 
I explained to him that Mr. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, was anxious to prepare his Budget for the ensuing 
session of Parliament, and that it would be a convenience to him 
to be informed as soon as possible whether the French Govern- 
ment was decided to agree to a commercial treaty, as in that case 
he would make arrangements accordingly ; that he did not wish to 
be in possession of the details, but merely to know whether the 
principle of a treaty was determined upon. The Emperor said 
he could have no hesitation in satisfying me on that point ; that 
he had quite made up his mind to enter into the Treaty, and that 
the only question was as to the details. He spoke of the difficul- 
ties he had to overcome, owing to the powerful interests that were 
united in defence of the present system. ' The protected indus- 
tries combine, but the general public do not.' I urged many 
arguments to encourage him to take a bold course, pointing out 
the very small number of the protected classes as compared with 
the whole community, and contending for the interests of the 
greatest number, rather than for those of the minority. He re- 



jEt.55.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 483 

peated to me the arguments which had been used by some of his 
ministers to dissuade him from a Free-trade policy, particularly 
by M. Magne, his Finance Minister, who had urged that if he 
merely changed his system from prohibition to high protective 
duties, it would be a change only in name, but that if he laid on 
moderate duties which admitted a large importation of foreign 
merchandise, then, for every piece of manufactured goods so ad- 
mitted to consumption in France, a piece of domestic manufacture 
must be displaced. I pointed out the fallacy of M. Magne's argu- 
ment in the assumption that everybody in France was sufficiently 
clothed, and that no increased consumption could take place. I 
observed that many millions in France never wore stockings, and 
yet stockings were prohibited. He remarked that he was sorry to 
say that ten millions of the population hardly ever tasted bread, 
but subsisted on potatoes, chestnuts, &c. — (I conclude this must 
be an exaggeration). I expressed an opinion that the working 
population of his country were in a very inferior condition as 
compared with those in England. 

"Preferring to the details in his intended tariff, he said the 
duties would range from ten to thirty per cent. I pointed out 
the excessive rate of the latter figure, that the maximum ought not 
to exceed twenty per cent ; that it would defeat his object in 
every way if he went as high as thirty per cent ; that it would 
fail as an economical measure, whilst in a political point of view 
it would be unsuccessful, inasmuch as the people of England 
would regard it as prohibition in another form. He referred me 
to M. Eouher for further discussion of this question. He described 
to me the letter which he thought of publishing declaratory of his 
intention of entering on a course of internal improvement and 
commercial reform, and asked me whether it would not place him 
at a disadvantage with the British Government if he announced 
his policy beforehand, and whether they might not be inclined 
afterwards to withdraw from the Treaty. I replied that there 
might be other objections to his publishing such a letter, but this 
was not one, and that I was sure it would not be taken advantage 
of by our Government. We then talked of our immense prepara- 
tion in naval armaments. I said I expected that in a few months 
we should have sixty line-of-battle ships, screws, in commission. 
He said he had only twenty-seven. • Talking of the excited state 
of alarm in England, he said he was dictating to M. Mocquard a 
dialogue between a Frenchman and an Englishman, in which he 
should introduce all the arguments used in England to stimulate 
the present alarm of French aggression, and his answers to them, 
and he asked if I thought the Times would print it. 

"Whilst we were in the midst of this familiar conversation, 
during which he smoked several cigarettes, the Empress entered 



484 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

the room, to whom I was introduced. She is a tall and graceful 
person, very amiable and gracious, but her features were not 
entirely free from an expression of thoughtfulness, if not melan- 
choly. The Emperor is said by everybody to be very fascinating 
to those who come much in personal contact with him. I found 
him more attractive at this second audience than the first. His 
manner is very simple and natural. If there be any affectation, 
it is in a slight air of humility (' young ambition's ladder '), which 
shows itself with consummate tact in his voice and gestures." 

Cobden gives some further particulars in a letter to Mr. Bright 
(Dec. 29,1859): — 

" I saw the Emperor again for a full hour last week, as you 
would learn from your brother. Of course, I tried to employ 
every minute on my own topic, but he was in a talkative mood, 
and sometimes ran off on other subjects. It was at four o'clock ; 
he had been busy all day, and I was surprised at the gayety of his 
manner. He smoked cigarettes all the time, but talked and 
listened admirably. .... On this occasion my private lesson was 
chiefly taken up with answering the arguments with which M. 
Magne, his Minister of Finance, who is a furious protectionist, 
had been trying to frighten him. Here was one of them, which 
he repeated word for word to me : ' Sire, if you do not make a 
sensible reduction in your duties, the measure will be charged on 
you as an attempted delusion. If you do make a serious reduc- 
tion, then for every piece of foreign manufacture admitted into 
France, you will displace a piece of domestic fabrication.' I of 
course laughed, and held up both hands, and exclaimed what an 
old friend that argument was ; how we had been told the same 
thing a thousand times of corn ; and how we answered it a thou- 
sand times by showing that a fourth part of the people were not 
properly fed. And then I showed how we had imported many 
millions of quarters of corn annually since the repeal of our corn 
law, whilst our own agriculture was more prosperous and pro- 
ductive than ever, and yet it was all consumed,. I told him that 
his people were badly clothed, that nearly a fourth of his subjects 
did not wear stockings, and I begged him to remind M. Magne 
that if a few thousand dozens of hose were admitted into France, 
they might be consumed by these bare-legged people, without 

interfering with the demand for the native manufacture 

We then got upon the condition of the mass of the working 
people, where his sympathy is mainly centred, and on the effect 
of machinery, Free Trade, etc., on their fate. He said the pro- 
tectionists always argued that the working class engaged in manu- 
factures were better off here than in England, and they always 
assumed that Free Trade would lower the condition of the French 
operatives. I told him that the operatives in France were work- 



Mt.56.~] THE FRENCH TREATY. 485 

ing twenty per cent more time for twenty per cent less wages, and 
paid upwards of ten per cent more for their clothing, as compared 
with the same class in England. He seized a pen and asked me 
to repeat these figures, which he put down, observing, ' What 
an answer to those people ! ' I told him that if M. Magne or 
anybody else disputed my figures, I was prepared ^to prove them. 
But I need not repeat to you a course of argument with which 
we are so familiar." 

After this interview the negotiation reached the stage of for- 
mal diplomacy. Cobden's position had hitherto been wholly 
unofficial. He had been a private person, representing to the 
French Emperor that he believed the English Government would 
not be indisposed to entertain the question of a commercial treaty. 
The matter came officially before Lord Cowley in the form of a 
request from Count Walewski that he would ascertain the views 
and. intentions of his Government. Lord Cowley applied to Lord 
John Eussell for official instructions to act, and in the course of 
the next month Cobden received his own instructions and powers. 
Meanwhile not a day was lost, and he brought the same tact and 
unwearied energy to the settlement of the details of the Treaty, 
which he had employed in persuading this little group of im- 
portant men to accept its principles and policy. There was one 
singular personage, who ought from his keen faculties, his grasp 
of the principles of modern progress, and his position, to have 
been the most important of all, but in whom his gifts have been 
nullified by want of that indescribable something which men call 
character and the spirit of conduct. This was Prince Napoleon. 
Cobden had several conversations with him, and came to the con- 
clusion that few men in France had a more thorough mastery of 
economic questions. He thus describes their first interview, 
which is interesting from the clearness with which it brings out 
how secondary or indirect an object the commercial treaty was in 
itself to the French Government, compared with its importance 
in their eyes as a means of strengthening the alliance between 
France and England : — 

" Jan. 4. — Dined at M. Emile de Girardin's, and met Prince 
Napoleon, the son of Jerome, whose face bears a strong resem- 
blance to the first Napoleon. After dinner I conversed apart with 
him for nearly an hour upon the subject of the proposed Treaty, 
to which he was strongly favorable. He verified the opinion I 
had heard of him as being favorable 'to Free Trade, and he spoke 
with much fluency and considerable knowledge on economical 
questions. He gives one the impression of great cleverness in a 
first interview. In the course of our conversation, in speaking of 
the relations between France and England, he said that he knew, 
from frequent conversations with the Emperor, that he desired, 



486 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

du fond de son cceur, to be at peace with England, and that he 
was led to this feeling by the perusal of the life of his uncle, 
whose fall was attributable to the hostility of England, whose 
wealth furnished the sinews of war to the whole of Europe. I 
went over the whole of the arguments, political and economical, 
in favor of the Treaty ; and he finally proposed to see the Emperor 
on the subject to-morrow, 

" He informed me that M. Walewski had retired from the post 
of Minister of Foreign Affairs. 1 This led to a long conversation 
upon the foreign policy of France. The Prince said that as there 
was to be no congress on Italian affairs, the only way in which 
they could be arranged was by a thorough alliance between 
France, England, and Sardinia, by whom the Italian territory 
must be held inviolate against foreign intervention, and that 
England must be prepared, in case Austria should violate this 
rule, to send a fleet into the Adriatic to co-operate with France 
against that Power. I told him that such an alliance with the 
present state of public opinion in England so hostile to, or so 
fearful of, the designs of the Emperor, was out of the question ; 
that the only way to alter this state of doubt and suspicion was a 
declaration of views by the French Government favorable to a 
greater commercial intercourse between the two countries ; that 
letters or phrases would have no effect; that acts alone, as dis- 
played in a reform of the tariff, would inspire the English people 
with confidence in the pacific intentions of the Emperor. The 
Prince professed a perfect agreement, repeating my words that 
there had been enough and too many phrases and letters. He said 
that he feared the Emperor might not be firm in the affair of the 
Treaty ; that he would be deterred from his purpose by reports 
which M. Billault, the Minister of the Interior, would give him 
of the hostile feelings of the protectionists, and their work-people 
at Eouen, Lille, etc.; that he had twice abandoned his purpose, 
and thrown over M. Eouher, whom he had previously encouraged 
to proceed with the reform of the tariff; that the Emperor, 
though he persists in arriving at an object which he' has once 
resolved to attain, yet had a habit of deviating and stumbjing by 
the way." 

There were frequent interruptions, for, as Lord Palmerston once 
said, Napoleon's mind was as full of schemes as a warren is full 
of rabbits. Cobden was alarmed one day, for instance, by a story 
that the treaty of commerce was to be thrown aside in favor of a 
treaty of alliance for settling the affairs of Italy. Then the treaty 
of commerce was not to be thrown aside, but a political treaty 
was to be tacked on to it. " It is possible," Cobden wrote to Mr. 

1 Walewski's retirement was due to his disagreement with the Emperor on the 
subject of an Italian Confederation. He was succeeded by M. Thouvenel. 



Ml. 56.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 487 

Gladstone (Jan. 7, 1860), "that the Emperor may think we attach 
so much importance to the Treaty, that he can make it a bribe to 
make us agree to something else. Much as I am interested in the 
success of the good work, I would not allow such a stipulation to 
be made. The Emperor has more necessity for our alliance than 
we have for his just now." When this disquieting project van- 
ished, the Emperor wished to submit the draft of the Treaty to 
the Legislative Body, notwithstanding the fact that he had him- 
self assured Cobden that the Legislative Body was irreconcilably 
hostile to every manner of Eree Trade. 

After this there was one more fierce struggle at the council- 
table. M. Magne — a cannon-ball protectionist, as Cobden de- 
scribed him — and M. Troplong insisted that at any rate the 
Emperor was bound by his word of honor to have an inquiry be- 
fore he abolished the prohibitive system. The Emperor yielded, 
and held a formal inquiry, which was limited to two days. Mean- 
while, to show that he had no intention of drawing back, he sent 
to the Moniteur, what was for nine days a memorable document, 
the Letter to M. Fould. This letter was an announcement, in 
shadowy general terms, of the coming change ; it had previously 
been submitted by the Emperor to Cobden, and at Cobden's sug- 
gestion some changes and additions had been made in it. Yet, 
though Cobden thus was not only the inspirer of the Treaty, but 
actually put words and principles into the Emperor's mouth, one 
of the favorite charges against the Treaty, when it came before 
Parliament in England, was that it was the result of a policy of 
subservience. With noble indignation one member of the House 
of Commons asked whether the free Parliament of Britain had 
assembled only to register the decrees of a foreign despot. 

In France the Emperor's letter excited intense excitement. 
An eminent member of the English Parliament happened to be at 
the house of M. Thiers on the evening when the news of the 
Treaty was brought in, and he has described the sparkling fury of 
the great man at the Emperor's new card. The protectionists 
hastened to Paris and appointed a strong committee to sit en per- 
manence. The feeling was so violent that the greatest industrial 
personage in France told Cobden that his own nephew had refused 
to shake hands because he, the uncle, was a Free Trader. The 
Orleanists were disgusted that the Emperor should have the credit 
of doing a good thing, and Cobden heard one of the party declare, 
with much vehemence, at a dinner of the Political Economy Club, 
that to establish Free Trade in a country where public opinion 
was not ripe for it, was neither more nor less than gross oppres- 
sion. Friends and foes, however, amid the hubbub of criticism, 
agreed in admiring the Emperor's courage. " You may form some 
idea of the position," Cobden wrote to Mr. Gladstone, "if you will 



488 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

imagine yourself in England in 1820, before Mr. Huskisson began 
his innovations in our tariff, with this serious disadvantage on the 
side of the French Government, that while the protectionists have 
all the selfishness and timidity which characterized our 'interests' 
at that time, they arrogate to themselves an amount of social and 
political importance which our manufacturers never pretended to 

possess It would hardly be possible to assemble five hundred 

persons together by any process of selection, and not find nine 
tenths of them at least in favor of the present restrictive system." 
Only thirteen years before, as we have seen, Louis Philippe had 
candidly told Cobden that the iron-masters and other protected 
interests commanded such an overwhelming majority in the 
Chamber, that it was utterly impossible to take a single step in 
the direction of Free Trade. Cobden had been warned from the 
first that the iron interest had powerful friends even within the 
walls of the imperial palace, and he felt this occult antagonism 
throughout the negotiation. 

The resistance to the Treaty grew stronger every hour. A 
hundred and twenty cotton spinners assembled in the courtyard 
of the Minister of the Interior, tumultuously crying for an imme- 
diate interview. M. Thiers was said to be calling for an audience 
with the Emperor. The press teemed with articles and pam- 
phlets, whose logic and temper betrayed the high pressure under 
which they had been composed. In Manchester, meanwhile, the 
Emperor's letter had created an exultant excitement which had 
never been equalled since the day when Sir Eobert Peel an- 
nounced that he was about to repeal the Corn Laws. The letter 
had appeared on a Sunday (January 15th), and at the great mar- 
ket which used to draw men from every part of that thriving 
district on Tuesdays, the French Emperor was everywhere hailed 
as the best man in Europe. This intense satisfaction was due less 
to a desire for extended trade, than to the confidence that the 
Emperor intended peace, and had taken the most effectual means 
to make it permanent. The English newspapers, which every 
morning for months past had been accusing the Emperor of every 
sinister quality in statesmanship, now turned round so hand- 
somely that M. Baroche told Cobden he wished they could be 
forced to moderate their compliments, as such flattery made the 
Treaty more unpopular in France. 

A week after the publication of the letter, the Treaty was ready 
for execution, and the happy day arrived. The following is 
Cobden's entry in his journal : — 

"Jan. 23. — Went to the Embassy at eight this morning, to 
revise for the last time the list of articles in the Treaty. At two 
o'clock the plenipotentiaries met at the Foreign Office, where the 
Treaty was read over by a clerk in French and English, after 



JJt.56.] THE FRENCH TREATY. 489 

which it was duly signed and sealed. 1 It is wanting four days 
only of three months since I had my first interview with the 
Emperor at St. Cloud. The interval has been a period of almost 
incessant nervous irritation and excitement, owing to the delays 
and uncertainties which have constantly arisen. I can now un- 
derstand not only the wisdom, but the benevolence, of Talleyrand, 
when he counselled a young diplomatist not to be in earnest. 
However, the work is at last at an end, and I hope it will pave 
the* way for a change in the relations between these two great 
neighbors by placing England and France in mutual commercial 
dependence on each other." 

Cobclen's health had been so bad since his return to Paris in 
the middle of November, that the end of his business came none 
too soon. His throat and chest gave him incessant trouble, and 
the doctor urged a speedy flight to the lands of the sun. Lord 
Palmerston had written to him that " the climate of Paris is per- 
haps better than that of London, but then the French physicians 
are less in the habit of curing their patients than ours are." From 
climate and physicians alike Cobden was eager to escape. As it 
happened, the work was not even yet quite at an end. Some 
small verbal loosenesses were discovered in the Treaty. The 
negotiators had written English coke and coal, when they meant 
British, and harbor, when they meant shipping. It was re- 
written, and again signed, the signatures and seals from the old 
Treaty having been duly cut off. This was on January 29. 

Surprise has often been expressed that a man of Cobden's 
strong Liberalism should have been not only so willing to co-oper- 
ate with Louis Napoleon, but so unable to enter into the feelings 
of Frenchmen towards a government which, besides being lawless 
and violent in its origin, persisted in stifling the press, corrupting 
the administration, silencing the popular voice, and from time to 
time sending great batches of untried and often innocent men to 
obscure and miserable death at Cayenne. A story is told of an 
Englishman of reputation at this time saying to a group which 
surrounded him in a Parisian drawing-room : — " But surely under 
your present Government France is prosperous ; and surely you 
can do as you please." " Oh, dear, yes," said a bystander, " if we 
wish only to eat, drink, and make money, we can do exactly as 
we please." It was said that Cobden thought too lightly of all 
those things, besides eating, drinking, and making money, which 
the best Frenchman might wish to do and ought to be esteemed 
and praised for wishing to do. ' One or two remarks may be made 
upon this interesting point. 

In the first place, economists have often been apt to treat the 

1 Lord Cowley and Cobden signed on behalf of England, and M. Baroche — then 
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs — and M. Rouher for France. 



490 LIFE OF COBDEN. [I860. 

political side of affairs as secondary to the material side. Turgot, 
and the whole school of which he is the greatest name, systemat- 
ically assumed that the reforms which they sought should proceed 
from an absolute central power. It was one of the distinctions 
of the Saint Simonians, to whom Cobden's friend Chevalier be- 
longed, that they held strongly that government is good for some- 
thing, and that authority is an indispensable principle of modern 
societies. M. Laffitte, the admirable chief of another earnest sect 
of social reformers, told an English traveller that he and his friends 
approved of the imperial regime. Cobden's attitude, therefore, 
was in harmony with that of many able and disinterested men 
who had nothing to do with the imperialist party, but who con- 
scientiously thought that the existing Government, notwithstand- 
ing its heavy drawbacks, was better than the anarchy of utopists, 
anarchists, and talkers, which it had superseded, and that it had at 
least the merit of preserving an amount and kind of order in which 
the ideas of a better system might grow up. Events, in the opin- 
ion of the present writer, only confirmed what sound political judg- 
ment might have led men to expect — namely, that this was a 
grave miscalculation. Sedan and the Treaty of Frankfort proved 
it. But if Cobden thought better of the Empire than it deserved, 
not a few good and high-minded Frenchmen erred with him. 

Our second remark, however, is that Cobden was probably as 
well aware as others of the evils and perils of the Empire. He 
was no blind believer in the Emperor, as his letters testify. It 
was not his tendency to believe blindly in any governments. But 
he always revolted from the pharisaical censoriousness and most 
unseemly license with which English journalists and others are 
accustomed to write about the rulers and the affairs of foreign 
nations. He always inclined to moral, no less than to a material, 
non-intervention in the domestic doings of other countries, and 
thought it right to observe and counsel a language of scrupulous 
decency towards a government in which the bulk of the French 
nation formally and deliberately acquiesced. 

Apart from such considerations as these, Cobden would proba- 
bly have defended himself for acting with such a government as 
that of Louis Napoleon, by the plain argument that in politics it 
is wise not to throw away any opportunity of getting a good thing 
done. The Empire was there, and it was the part of sound sense 
to secure from it whatever compensation it might be made to 
afford for its flagrant and admitted disadvantages. It is some- 
times said that the policy of Free Trade has been damaged in 
the opinion of France, by being thus associated with the ruined 
Empire. Apart from the fact that later governments have not 
ventured to go back from the Treaty policy, if this plea against 
Cobden were in any degree true, we ought to find the desire for 



M£. 56.] HOLIDAY AND RETURN TO PARIS. 491 

protection strongest in those parts where dislike of the Empire is 
strongest. This is notoriously not the case. The feeling about 
the Treaty uniformly follows the interests of the people con- 
cerned, and is absolutely independent of any feeling as to the 
government by which the Treaty was made. 

This was in fact Cobclen's own case. He knew as well as any 
one else that the position of the Emperor was that of a gambler, 
who might be driven by the chances of fortune to acts of despera- 
tion. But he insisted that, so far as England was concerned, the 
Emperor nursed no criminal designs, but, on the contrary, made 
friendship with England the keystone of his system. He in- 
sisted, moreover, that even if it were otherwise, still the most 
solid and durable check to the development of hostile purposes 
would be found in the promotion of close and deeply interested 
commercial intercourse between the people of the two countries. 
The change in the relations between the governments of France 
and England for the last twenty years, in the language of the 
French and English press, in the mutual sentiments of the two 
peoples, is the verification of Cobden's hope and foresight. 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

HOLIDAY AND RETURN TO PARIS. 

Most men would have been content, after such an achievement 
as the Treaty, to sink instantly into the repose of a long holiday. 
If Cobden had been so exclusively interested in a mere increase 
of trade as his adversaries believed, he would have cared very 
little for the Italian question. As a matter of fact he cared 
intensely for it, and thought clearly about it. He had as defi- 
nite ideas and as deep an anxiety about foreign affairs as Lord 
Palmerston himself. It was in method that the vast difference 
existed between them, not in the supposed fact that one had a 
foreign policy and the other had none. Cobden went straight 
from the Foreign Office, where he had just signed the revised 
Treaty, to the Austrian Embassy. Prince Metternich was not at 
home, but Cobden returned the next day and delivered his soul 
on the subject of Venetia, which was then jeoparding the Euro- 
pean peace. 

We have to remember that all this time the entanglements of 
Italy had been distracting the Powers. Throughout the negotia- 
tions on the Treaty, which, as we shall see, lasted until the autumn 



492 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

of I860, the group of difficulties known as the Italian question 
engrossed the attention of every statesman in Europe. The Em- 
peror of the French was more dangerously involved in these 
difficulties than any one else, not excepting Victor Emmanuel him- 
self. The Treaties of Zurich, which gave definitive shape to the 
preliminaries agreed upon between Napoleon and Francis Joseph 
at Villafranca (July 11, 1859), had been signed during Cobden's 
short visit to London in November. 

The base of these Treaties, which proved the most absolutely 
abortive documents in the whole history of diplomacy, was the 
proposed formation of an Italian Confederation under the honor- 
ary presidency of the Pope; the 'cession of Lombardy, save the two 
great fortresses of Peschiera and Mantua, to the King of Sardinia ; 
admission of Yenetia to the Italian Confederation, while remain- 
ing a possession of Austria; the restoration of the Dukes of Tus- 
cany and Modena. There was, at the moment when Cobden saw 
Prince Metternich, no prospect of a single article of either Treaty 
being realized. The Grand Dukes dared not enter their former 
dominions. The Eomagna would not receive back the agents of 
the Pope. The Italians would have nothing to say to a Confed- 
eration, and insisted on unity. The Pope protested, in language 
that was more energetic than saintly, against all that had been 
done, and denounced a pamphlet which was known to be written 
by the French Emperor as a monument of hypocrisy and an ig- 
noble tissue of contradictions. 1 

The deadlock of the moment was unique. The force of circum- 
stances had brought the European powers to a policy of non- 
intervention, not by their own free will, but because the peril of 
departing from it was grave and instant. The Emperor of Austria 
and the Emperor of the French were equally bound by the Treaty 
of Zurich, but the Treaty of Zurich was desperate. Lord Palmer- 
ston and Lord John Eussell, whose sympathies were generously 
given to the cause of Italy, were inclined to a course which might 
not improbably have drawn England into war. 2 The case was 
exactly that which many partisans of the general principle of 
non-intervention have taken as beyond the limits of that princi- 
ple ; it was a case, namely, of intervention by English diplomacy 
to enforce non-intervention by Austria in the rights of the people 
of Italy to settle their own government. However this may be, 
there was no objection to the informal diplomacy in which Cob- 
den now innocently engaged, and those who realize the interest 
and prodigious peril of the Italian question in the early weeks of 

1 " The Emperor is decidedly too fond of seeing himself in print," Cobden wrote 
in his journal, when Le Pape, et le Congrks appeared. 

2 See Mr. Ashley's Life, of Lord Palmerston, ii. chapter 15, p. 382. Mem. of 
Jan. 5, 1860. 



Ml. 56.] HOLIDAY AND RETURN TO PARIS. 493 

1860 will perhaps care to know what was Cobden's advice to 
Austria. It was Austrian policy in regard to Venetia that made 
the cardinal difficulty. 

"Jan. 30, 1860. — Called and conversed for nearly an hour 
with Prince Metternich, the Austrian ambassador, upon the sub- 
ject of the affairs of Italy. I took special care at the outset to 
explain to him that I held no diplomatic or other official post ; 
that the Treaty of Commerce having been signed, for which alone 
I had been named plenipotentiary, I reverted to my former ca- 
pacity of an independent member of Parliament, having no con- 
nection with the English Government ; and that neither Lord 
Cowley nor any one else was aware of my intention of calling on 
the Prince. I then observed that the interest I felt in the cause 
of European peace, and the fear I felt lest a rupture might again 
take place on the Italian question, had emboldened me to call to 
ask his attention for a few minutes to what I had to say, premis- 
ing that I did not ask or expect him to offer any opinion in reply. 
I began by explaining very frankly the state of public opinion in 
England, as well as in the United States, on the Italian question ; 
that the popular sympathies were everywhere strongly in favor 
of the Italians ; and that if another struggle should arise for the 
independence of Venetia, and especially if it were attended with 
slaughter of civilians, or sack of an unarmed community, it would 
be very difficult for any government in England to prevent the 
feeling of horror and resentment from assuming the form of mate- 
rial aid to the Italians. I then proceeded to hint whether, in 
such a state of things as existed in Venetia, it would not be true 
wisdom in the Austrian Government to contemplate some arrange- 
ment by which the danger of war might be averted , that there 
were people now speculating on the prospects of war this spring, 
and they might not be unwilling to promote such a result ; and I 
then frankly added that I did not believe there was any other 
mode by which the danger could be effectually met but by aban- 
doning Venetia to the Italians, taking in return an indemnity 
which I thought might be made to amount to a very important 
sum of money. 

" I then continued (as he did not seem desirous of taking a part 
in the conversation) to urge some reasons for entertaining such 
an idea. I showed the great pecuniary loss which Austria suf- 
fered from the possession of Venetia ; that the cost of holding the 
province in subjection was far more than its income ; that I be- 
lieved there were now so many soldiers in possession of Venetia, 
that they were equal to one for every ten of the entire popula- 
tion ; that this state of things was growing every year worse and 
worse, and that whilst the present cost was so burdensome to the 
resources of Austria, the imminent danger of the future prevented 



494 LIFE OP COBDEN. [1860. 

her Government from directing its energies to the improvement 
of the internal resources of the Empire. 

" He now gradually took a part in the conversation, giving me 
credit for the singleness of purpose which had induced me to call 
on him, and said that my antecedents upon the question of peace, 
and the extension of commerce, were a justification for the course 
I was taking. He frankly avowed' that he did not justify every- 
thing that his government had been doing of late in Italy, and 
that he blamed especially the mode in which they had commenced 
the war last year. He observed that, speaking only his own in- 
dividual sentiments, he did not consider that, ' if the interests of 
the peace of Europe called for such an arrangement,' it would be 
'absolutely impossible' for Austria to come to terms with Venetia, 
by which their relations might be placed upon a different footing. 
He hinted at the appointment of a Grand Duke with greater local 
powers. His ideas did not go to the extent of a complete aliena- 
tion of territory. Indeed, he expressed an opinion that the great 
body of the population of Venetia were not so much disaffected 
towards the present order of things as was supposed; that the 
agitation against the Austrian Government was factitious, and so 
forth. 

" 1 endeavored to combat this view by drawing his attention to 
the immense military force kept up. He said that this was ren- 
dered necessary by the hostile attitude of their next neighbor. I 
pointed to this as an inevitable state of things ; and I observed 
that, although I had no sympathy for the dynastic ambition of 
the King of Sardinia, or for the plans of annexation which were 
entertained by his Minister, still it could not' be denied that the 
kingdom of Sardinia was a growing power, possessing to a large 
extent the sympathy of the world, and that therefore the perma- 
nent influence of that State, as a hostile neighbor, must always 
be taken into account in the value to be put upon Venetia. I 
declared my belief that the two races would become every year 
more and more alienated, and that it would be impossible perma- 
nently to keep possession of Venetia, or that it could only be held 
at a ruinous loss to the Government of Vienna. I remarked that 
whilst Austria possessed Lombardy, she had a comparatively an- 
cient title to her Italian possessions, but she had come into such 
recent possession of her Venetian territory, and the mode in which 
Venice had been given over to her by Bonaparte, at Campo For- 
mio, was such an outrage upon all justice and decency, chat Eu- 
rope felt a sort of shame at having been made a party to such an 
act of violence at the Congress of Vienna, and it would be held 
by many to be a duty to contribute towards a redress of the evil. 

" He said that Austria was peculiarly circumstanced ; that it 
was a collection of nationalities ; and that it would be a serious 



Mt. 56.] HOLIDAY AND RETURN TO PARIS. 495 

thing to begin a process of selling the independence of a province 
of the Empire. I said there was no analogy between the state of 
Venetia and that of Hungary or Bohemia ; that nobody consid- 
ered the latter kingdoms as being anxious for complete separation 
from Austria, but merely as aiming at a reform in their adminis- 
tration — a question about which foreigners were comparatively 
little concerned. Whereas, on the contrary, the Italian question 
engrossed the attention of the political world, and everywhere it 
was regarded as a danger to the peace of Europe. He said it 
would be a very delicate question what would become of the 
province of Venetia if it were abandoned ; that it might possibly 
be annexed to Piedmont, and there would probably be objections 
to the aggrandizement of the military monarchy. On the other 
hand, the Italian states might quarrel or fall into anarchy, and 
call for the intervention of neighboring states. He alluded to 
the serious consideration of how far it would be wise in Austria 
to give up so powerful a strategic position as the great fortresses 
presented, that the Italian Tyrol might be attacked, or the terri- 
tory on the Adriatic, etc. I said that the wisest course for Aus- 
tria would be to give the full control of their future destinies to 
the population of Venetia ; that a magnanimous policy was the 
best, and the only one becoming a great Empire ; that it would, 
besides, be quite useless to attempt to bind the people of Venetia, 
for that the world was more and more inclined to recognize the 
rights of the people to choose their own mode of government, and 
their own alliances and amalgamation ; and, therefore, that if the 
people of Venetia chose to annex themselves to Piedmont, it 
would not be likely that any Power would interfere to prevent 
them. As respected the great fortresses, I said that I would not 
advise their being given up, but destroyed, that I would blow them 
up, and, if possible, raze them to the ground. 

" I then came to the plain statement of the plan I would fol- 
low. I would sell the independence of Venetia for a large sum, 
which no doubt might be easily arranged ; with that money, say 
twenty or thirty millions sterling, I would put the finances of the 
Austrian Government in order, restore the currency, re-establish 
my credit, and then apply myself to the internal reforms of the 
Empire. I knew no country where there was such a field for im- 
provement as in Austria ; that a few years of fiscal and commer- 
cial amelioration would add immensely to the wealth and power 
of the Empire ; that, even with the loss of the Italian provinces, 
the population of Austria would be about equal to that of France, 
and greater than that of England, and would contain resources 
which, if properly developed, might in a few years make her one 
of the richest and most prosperous countries in Europe. I at the 
same time pointed out the evils which must arise from the pres- 



496 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

ent state of the finances and the currency in Austria ; that all 
mercantile operations, and all contracts between individuals, must 
be rendered more and more difficult and insecure, so long as the 
future of the Empire is involved in so much uncertainty, and 
whilst the circulating medium is subjected to such constant de- 
preciation. 

" The Prince showed much earnestness of feeling in his conver- 
sation. He wore an humbled air, as well he might, considering 
the topic on which we were conversing, which was nothing less 
than whether it would be advisable to sell a part of the Empire 
to save the rest. After reiterated apologies for the liberty I had 
taken in calling on him, which he received in the best possible 
spirit, I left him. If I could spend a month in Vienna, and see 
the leading men in the Government circles there, I feel a presen- 
timent that I could bring them to my views on this difficult and 
important subject." 

The next clay Cobden started for the south of France, and he 
remained there until the last week in March. He made Cannes 
his headquarters, and hoped for sunshine and warmth. Unluckily, 
cloudy skies and keen winds confirmed his opinion that, if we 
would make sure of a second summer in the year, it cannot be 
had in Europe ; men must imitate the swallows and migrate into 
Africa. Cobden's elastic and joyful temperament, however, atoned 
for defects of climate, and his diary is a record of lively excur- 
sions and genial intercourse with friends. Among his daily com- 
panions were Bunsen, Henri Martin, Aries Dufour, Legouve\ 
Merimee, and occasionally Lord Brougham. Those who have 
been accustomed to think of Cobden as wrapped up in tariffs and 
the vulgarities of Parliament might well be amazed at the eager- 
ness with which he notes the house to which Eachel was brought 
to die, and the circumstances of her last hours ; at his enthusiasm 
for the fine landscapes ; at the sincerity of interest with which he 
listened for long hours while Bunsen talked to him about Egyp- 
tian antiquities, and read his latest successes in deciphering hiero- 
glyphs. Every day brought to his curious and observant mind 
new stores of information, political, social, and industrial, and still 
he had interest left for gossip and the trivialities that help such 
men across from one serious thought to another. 

The people of the country wished to make their visitor useful ; 
and three of the principal inhabitants of Grasse came to beg of 
him that when he returned to Paris he would say a word to M. 
Eouher in favor of a railroad from Grasse to Cannes. " I re- 
marked," says Cobden, " that in England a rich and industrious 
community like theirs would have a meeting, and form a company 
to, make a line for themselves, seeing that it was calculated that 
it would pay a good interest for the investment. They replied 



Mi. 56.] HOLIDAY AND RETURN TO PARIS. 497 

that it was not their way of doing things in France ; they were 
accustomed to look to the government to take the initiative ; 
and as other parts of France were assisted by government, they 
might as well be assisted also. They said that in the month of 
May, when the flowers were brought into Grasse for making them 
into scented waters, pomades, etc., one house would sometimes 
receive several tons of rose-leaves in a morning." 

In the course of his stay, Cobden paid a visit to some friends 
at Nice, where the expected annexation to France was the general 
topic of conversation among people of all classes. It is perhaps 
worth while, considering the violent agitation which this transac- 
tion was shortly to rouse in England, to reproduce Cobden's im- 
pression of the public feeling on the spot : — "I found it very 
difficult," he says, " to ascertain the prevailing state of opinion on 
the subject. As a general rule, I. found that people's inclinations 
in the matter followed pretty closely the direction of their personal 
interests. The shopkeepers and tradespeople of the town, who 
thought their business would be improved by the change, were in 
favor of annexation. The professional men, the advocates, and 
lawyers, whose interests would suffer, were generally opposed to 
the project. The landowners and peasants were said by some to 
be favorable, and by others to be opposed. It was very difficult 
to ascertain the state of public opinion, for almost every person I 
consulted differed from the one I had previously talked to. 
Sometimes I found members of the same household divided in 
opinion. Whilst talking to M. A., a banker, in his counting- 
house, who was using various reasons in favor of annexation, his 
clerks, who were in an adjoining office, separated by a glass parti- 
tion, and who overheard his remarks, were expressing by signs and 
gestures their dissent from his remarks. Again, on the same day, 
whilst calling on M. D., who was offering an opinion to the effect 
that the population generally were in favor of the proposed 
change, he was contradicted very emphatically by a lady who was 
present." 

On the 22d of March, Cobden found himself once more in 
Paris. 

"March 26. — Called on Lord Cowley. He appeared harassed 
and worried. Since I last saw him, the Savoy question had come 
to a crisis ; and the correspondence had all been published in a 
parliamentary blue book. He and his Secretary of Legation com- 
plained of the practice of printing the despatches giving an account 
of the conversations held with foreign ministers or other person- 
ages, remarking that these reports of what passes at a gossiping 
interview may be very proper for the eye of a Secretary of State, 
but become very inconvenient when exposed to the eye of the 

32 



498 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

whole world ; that their publication has the effect of making min- 
isters of state unwilling to hold oral communications with diplo- 
matic agents. Lord C. complained of the conduct of the Emperor 
in the Savoy question ; alleged broadly that he had been deceived 
by him ; that for the first time he had acted in such a way as to 
completely destroy all confidence in future in him ; he stated that 
he had, in an interview with the Emperor, told him frankly that 
he had not acted towards the English Government and its ambas- 
sador with the openness which had characterized all their previous 
intercourse ; that it was less the question of the annexation of Sa- 
voy than the way in which it w£s effected, which caused the present 
coolness and alienation between the two Governments. . . . 

"March 28. — Called on M. Eould, the Minister of State, and 
had half an hour's conversation with him. Speaking of the mis- 
understanding which had arisen between the French and English 
Governments since I last saw him, just before my departure for 
Cannes, he complained of Lord John Russell, our Foreign Minis- 
ter, and observed that he had been always in their way ; that he 
was opposed to the Treaty of Villafranca, and afterwards was the 
chief cause why the terms of that Treaty were not carried out and 
the Grand Dukes restored to their sovereignties. I remarked that 
it was utterly out of the question that force should have been 
resorted to for the restoration of the Dukes. He replied that 
force would not have been necessary if England had given her 
moral support to the principle, but that Lord John Eussell 
encouraged the Italian people to resist the wishes of the French 
Emperor, and thus rendered the fulfilment of the Treaty of Villa- 
franca impossible ; that it was in consequence of this that the 
change in the Emperor's plans became necessary, and that the 
annexation of Savoy was afterwards resorted to ; that if the terms 
of the Peace of Villafranca could have been carried out, France 
would not have thought of any extension of her frontier. In the 
course of conversation, he said that the English Court were much 
opposed to the French Government, and that Prince Albert was 
very Austrian in his sympathies. 

" March 29. — Dined with Prince Napoleon and the Princess 
Clotilde, and met a large party. The company were less than an 
hour at the table. The present Emperor has introduced the fash- 
ion of using great despatch at the dinner-table. 

" March 30. — Had an audience with the Emperor in the morn- 
ing at the Tuileries. After saying a few words about my visit to 
Cannes, and expressing his congratulations that the British Par- 
liament had at last passed the Treaty of Commerce, he referred 
to the state of the relations between his Government and that of 
England upon the subject of the annexation of Savoy to France. 
He complained of the manner in which he was attacked, and in 



JBr.56.] HOLIDAY AND RETURN TO PARIS. 499 

which his conduct and motives were misrepresented by the press 
of England, and by some of the speakers in the House of Com- 
mons. I remarked that I had not had the opportunity of reading 
the papers laid before Parliament upon the Savoy question, and 
was not therefore in possession of the facts of the case, but as far 
as I understood the ground of the misunderstanding which had 
unfortunately arisen between the two governments, since I last 
had the honor of an audience with his Majesty, it was caused less 
by what his government had actually done, in annexing Savoy 
and Nice to France, than by the manner in which it had been 
effected. He then volunteered an explanation in a few words of 
what had been his course from the beginning on this question ; 
changing from English, in which we had before been speaking, to 
French, for the more convenient and rapid delivery of his narrative. 

" He said, that, previous to entering on the war against Aus- 
tria, he had had an understanding with the King of Sardinia and 
Count Cavour, to the effect that if the result should be the driving 
of the Austrians out of Lombardy and Venetia, and the annexing 
of those provinces to Piedmont, then France would require the 
fulfilment of two conditions on the part of the King of Sardinia, 
viz. the payment of the expenses of the war (which the Emperor 
said had amounted to 300,000,000 francs), and the cession of 
Savoy and Nice. These terms were assented to, in a general way, 
by the Government of Sardinia. The result of the war had been 
less decisive than he had expected ; he acquired only Lombardy, 
which he had annexed to Piedmont, without the intention of 
claiming Savoy, and not intending to ask for more than a portion 
of the expenses of the war. The subsequent events, which had 
induced him to change his views, were wholly unexpected by him, 
and they were 'brought about in spite of his efforts to prevent 
them. Central Italy refused to take back its former rulers, and 
insisted on annexation to Piedmont, which gave the latter power 
as large an acquisition of territory, and as great a population in 
Italy (about 11,000,000), as if Venetia had been added to its 
dominions. Under these circumstances he had felt justified in 
claiming the cession of Savoy. 

" After finishing this narrative, he again recurred to the attacks 
and misrepresentations to which he was exposed. He said he 
was quite desoU to find that, in spite of his frank and loyal policy 
towards other Powers, he was still exposed to such unjust charges. 
I remarked that too much importance was sometimes attached to 
the strictures of a newspaper writer, or the language of a member 
of the House of Commons ; that he knew the state of things in 
England too well to require to be told that any writer could pub- 
lish whatever he pleased anonymously, and that a member of the 
House could utter whatever opinions he liked ; that people some- 



500 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

times fell into the error of regarding the utterances of an indi- 
vidual, who was perhaps actuated by very unworthy personal 
motives, as the expression of a large public opinion ; and I added 
the declaration of my belief that this misunderstanding between 
the two countries would be of an evanescent character ; that it 
would admit of explanations which would remove all grounds of 
serious disagreement. He joined in the expression of this wish. 
I then observed that I could see but one possible cause of war 
between the two countries ; that the mercantile and manufac- 
turing and mining interests have the power and determination to 
keep the peace so long as it is their interest to do so ; but the 
danger, and in my own opinion the only danger, was that the 
expenditure for our warlike armaments might be so increased that 
it would some day be possible to present to the people the argu- 
ment that war might be less costly than the perpetual burden of 
a war expenditure in a time of peace ; that I had heard very 
sedate and grave persons argue in this way ; and that, leaving out 
of the question the sacrifice of life and limb, it was difficult to 
answer their reasoning on economical grounds. I mentioned the 
enormous sums we were voting this year for our armaments. 

" He said he did not know what he could do to prevent it, or 
how he was responsible for such a state of things ; that, as regarded 
the navy, he was not spending so much on it as he ought to do, 
or as was laid down as necessary in Louis Philippe's time ; and 
he referred to the dialogue between an Englishman and a French- 
man, which he had composed and sent for publication to the 
Times newspaper ; it contained some exact details respecting the 
strength of the French navy. I reminded him that his experi- 
ments on iron-cased ships had led us into some expenses of the 
same kind. I mentioned that I had seen one of his frigates 
blindees at Toulon, with an iron casing about four inches in 
thickness ; that no sooner were they ordered to be built, than we 
began to construct line-of-battle ships with iron sides six inches 
thick, and that Mr. Whitworth had subsequently invented a gun 
which had projected a bullet through this thickness of iron, in 
addition to a couple of feet of solid timber ; that I thought all 
this a very deplorable waste, and unworthy of the age in which 
we lived. 

" We then talked of the Treaty of Commerce, and the remaining 
details which are yet to be settled. I argued that it was more 
than ever desirable, in the present unsatisfactory state of the 
relations between the two governments, that this Treaty, which 
was intended to unite the peoples of France and England in the 
bonds of commercial dependence, should be completely carried 
out. I urged several reasons why the duties should be moderate. 
He expressed his concurrence in this, and said the only subject 



Mi. 56.] HOLIDAY AND RETURN TO PARIS. 501 

on which he felt any anxiety was that of iron ; that the difficulty 
was the want of railroads to convey the ore to the coal ; that in 
two years' time he hoped this evil would be remedied. 

"On my rising to depart, he asked me to accept a vase as 
a souvenir. I left my address in London where it would be 
delivered. I hope it will be of small value. 1 

" March 31. — Dined at M. Eouher's, the Minister of Commerce, 
where a large party was assembled, everybody present except 
myself being decorated with orders and ribbons. I sat beside 
Prince Napoleon, and had a good deal of conversation upon the 

subject of our rival armaments He did not think it was 

impossible to come to an agreement for limiting the naval forces 
of the two countries ; but he thought that whilst our aristocracy 
retained its present power, it would be very difficult to carry out 
such a policy in England. He repeated several times, and with 
emphasis, that it would not be impossible on the part of France. 
In the course of conversation, when speaking of the inaptitude 
of the French for self-government, he remarked, ' And yet they 
are always crying out for liberty ! They want the right of gov- 
erning themselves, and yet they claim the right of exempting 
themselves from the duties of self-government.' " 

A day or two after, Cobden returned to England. And here 
we may for a moment turn from his public activity to say so much 
as may be necessary about some of his private concerns. The 
subject is painful enough, just as it is painful even at this distance 
of time to think of Burke's genius being humiliated and impeded 
by the straits of embarrassed circumstances. So much publicity, 
however, was given to Cobden's affairs, partly by the spleen of 
political adversaries, and partly by the indiscretion of friends, 
that it is proper to describe the transaction of this period as it 
really was. A few lines fortunately will suffice. We have seen 
that of the sum raised in 1846 as a proof of the public gratitude 
for his services in the cause of Free Trade, the bulk had been 
employed in meeting the heavy losses incurred in Cobden's 
business, during the time-- when he was absorbed in the agitation 
against the Corn Laws. What happened to the balance which 
had been invested in the shares of the Illinois Central Eailway, 
we have also seen. There was, moreover, the continued drain of 
the chief rent on the unhappy purchase of land at Manchester. 2 
The upshot was that after his return from the United States Cob- 
den found his resources practically exhausted, and his position 
had become extremely serious. 

Under these circumstances he applied to one of his oldest and 

1 The vase may be seen at the South Kensington Museum, whither Mrs. Cobden 
sent it shortly after the death of her husband. 

2 Above, pp. 107, 108. 



502 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

most confidential friends in Manchester for aid and advice. What 
he sought was that a few men who could afford to wait for a return 
on their money, might be induced to buy the building land from 
him at a certain valuation, which should include some of that 
prospective value which he insisted on seeing in it. In this letter 
he said to his friend, in words that will touch all who can think 
gently of a man for taking too little heed of his own interests, 
for the sake of the commonwealth : " My hair," he said, " has been 
growing gray latterly with the thoughts of what is to become of 
my children. If I were to consult my duty to them, I should 
withdraw from Parliament, and accept some public employment, 
by which I might earn 2000/. a year. The present Ministry have, 

through my friend Lord H , sounded me as to my willingness 

to take such an office. But I see the difficulty of justifying my 

withdrawal from Parliament at the present time It is one 

of the miseries of a public man's life that he must be liable under 
such circumstances to have his private troubles gibbeted before 
the whole world." 1 

It is not necessary to follow the course of what followed. It 
was found that nothing effectual could be done with the land. 
So a little group of Cobden's most intimate friends took counsel 
together, and in the end a subscription was privately raised which 
amounted to the sum of 40,000Z. The names of those who con- 
tributed to it, between ninety and a hundred persons in all, he 
never knew. He requested that a list might be given to him in 
a sealed cover. After his death the executors found the envelope 
in his desk, with the seal still unbroken. Such an endowment 
was a gracious and munificent testimonial to his devoted public 
spirit. The fact that Cobden had so richly earned the gift, made 
him, as it may make us, none the less sensible of the considerate 
liberality of the givers. 



CHAPTEK XXXI. 

THE TARIFF — THE FORTIFICATION. SCHEME. 

It is not necessary for us to follow the fortunes of the Treaty 
in England. They belong rather to our fiscal and parliamentary 
history, than to the biography of one of the negotiators. The 
Treaty was laid before Parliament by Lord John Russell, and 
its provisions were fully explained, along with the changes which 

1 To Mr. John Slagg. Sept. 5, 1859. 



£Jt.56.] THE TARIFF. 503 

the Government proposed in our fiscal system as a consequence 
of this Treaty, by Mr. Gladstone in a memorable speech (Feb. 10) 
which for lucidity and grasp has never been surpassed. He did 
not forget to pay a just tribute to his absent colleague. " Bare," 
said Mr. Gladstone, " is the privilege of any man who having 
fourteen years ago rendered to his country one signal and splen- 
did service, now again within the same brief span of life, deco- 
rated neither by rank nor title, bearing no mark to distinguish 
him from the people whom he serves, has been permitted again 
to perform a great and memorable service to his country." 

The leader of the Opposition did not fall far behind in civil 
words, while conveying in his compliment to Cobden a character- 
istic sneer at the hated Whigs. Mr. Disraeli (Feb. 20) took 
credit for having recognized the great ability and the honorable 
and eminent position of the secret agent of the Treaty, long 
before they had been recognized by those " sympathizing states- 
men of whom he was somehow doomed never to be the col- 
league." But at the same time, he detected in the Treaty the 
idiosyncrasies of the negotiator: he saw the negotiator's strong 
personal convictions in the wanton sacrifice of so many sources 
of revenue; he saw it in the light treatment of belligerent 
rights. 

Then the parliamentary battle began according to the well- 
known rules. Private secretaries rapidly hunted up the circum- 
stances of Pitt's Commercial Treaty of 1786, and their chiefs set 
to work to show that the precedent had been accurately followed, 
or else, if they happened to sit on the other side of the House, 
that it had been most unreasonably departed from. Men whose 
intellectual position was so strong as that of Sir James Graham 
and Earl Grey, protested against the policy of commercial trea- 
ties. One member, as I have already mentioned, still happily 
alive and vocal, asked if it had come to this — that the free Par- 
liament of England sat to register the decrees of the despot of 
France. There was the usual abundance of predictions, in which 
the barely possible was raised to the degree of probable or certain, 
and to which the only answer was that men were not bound to 
believe them. The great authority from the city prophesied that 
there would be no permanent enlargement of our trade with 
France as a consequence of the Treaty. Mr. Disraeli declared 
that he had always strongly desired an improvement of our com- 
mercial relations with France, and even if that improvement took 
the form of a commercial treaty he could endure it : but this was 
a bad treaty ; it was calculated to sow the seeds of discord and 
dissension between the two countries. Mr. Disraeli's chief in the 
House of Lords argued that the time was inopportune for a re- 
duction of the sources of revenue ; and he pointed out that the 



504 LIFE OF COBDEN. [I860. 

Treaty admitted to France articles of vital importance for pur- 
poses of war, and the Government itself acted in other respects as 
if war were not improbable. Here Lord Derby made a point, as 
Cobden would have been the first to admit. The policy of 1860 
was a double policy. The Treaty implied confidence in peace, 
while the estimates implied a strong expectation of war. If war 
were as near a contingency as the tone of some of the Ministers 
seemed to show, then the budget of 1860 was open to the criti- 
cism on the budget of 1853, the great peace budget which imme- 
diately preceded the Crimean War. 

After much skirmishing, the real debate came on in the House 
of Commons, on a motion that it was not expedient to diminish the 
sources of revenue, nor to reimpose the income tax at a need- 
lessly high rate. The discussion extended over three nights, and 
at the end of it the division gave to the Government a major- 
ity of 116. Mr. Gladstone had met happily enough the serious 
objections, as distinguished from those Which were invented in 
the usual way of party business. Nothing, he said, was given 
to France which was of any value to us. On .the other hand, 
nothing was received from France except a measure by which 
that country conferred a benefit upon itself. At a small loss of 
revenue we had gained a great extension of trade. These propo- 
sitions told with great weight against the theoretic objection that 
a commercial treaty tends to mislead nations as to the true nature 
of the transaction. In any case this was an objection which was 
very little calculated to affect a body endowed with the rough and 
blunt intellectual temper of the House of Commons. 

On his arrival in London, meanwhile, at the beginning of 
April, Cobden found that the Government had determined to 
send out a Commission to arrange the details of the tariff. The 
Commission was to consist of a chief and two official subordi- 
nates. The subordinates had already been named : one from the 
Board of Trade, and another from the Customs. The latter was 
represented by Mr. E. A. Ogilvie, the late Surveyor General of 
Customs, and the Board of Trade was represented by Mr. Louis 
Mallet, who speedily impressed Cobden, as the diaries show, by 
his strong intelligence and efficiency, and who afterwards became 
one of the most eminent advocates of Cobden's principles to be 
found among English statesmen. The Government thought that 
it would be beneath Cobden's dignity to accept the office of chief 
commissioner and to correspond with the Board of Trade, after 
having been a plenipotentiary and having corresponded with the 
Foreign Office. Cobden began to fear that the chief who might 
be appointed would not prove quite a man after his own heart, so, 
he says, " as I felt no concern whatever about the loss of dignitj^, 
I volunteered to come out to Paris myself as chief commissioner, 



Mi. 56.] THE TAKIFF. 505 

and to sign the supplementary treaty as plenipotentiary when it 
is completed. I am afraid I have undertaken a very difficult and 
tedious task. But having begun the good work, I must pursue it 
to the end, and probably I could not transfer it to other hands 
without damage to the cause." 1 

In fact, it was clear that though the diplomatic or political part 
of the work had been effectually done, the more difficult commer- 
cial part still remained. The Treaty was hardly more than a 
rough and provisional sketch. When it reached the Board of 
Trade the amazement of that office was not altogether pleasur- 
able, for a department is capable of self-love, and the officials 
privately felt that they had been made rather light of. It was 
soon perceived that from the point of view of their office the 
Treaty did not carry things far. In the first article the Emperor 
had engaged that in no case should the duties on a long list of 
articles of British production and manufacture exceed thirty per 
cent. This was to be the limit. But a duty of thirty per cent 
was nearly as bad as prohibition. All depended on the results 
of the thirteenth article. Article thirteen ran to the effect that 
the ad valorem duties established within the limits fixed by the 
preceding articles should be converted into specific duties by a 
Supplementary Convention. 2 

If it appears absurd that Cobden should ever have been con- 
tent with an arrangement that left the French with a possible 

i To M. Chevalier. April 14, 1860. 

2 It may be convenient here to reproduce the description of the terms of the 
Treaty, from Mr. Gladstone's speech explaining it to the House of Commons: — 
"First," he said, "I will take the engagements of France. France engages to 
reduce the duty on English coal and coke, from the 1st of July, 1860 ; on bar and 
pig iron and steel, from the 1st of October, 1860; on tools and machinery, from the 
1st of December, 1860; and on yarns and goods in flax and hemp, including, I 
believe, jute, — this last an article comparatively new in commerce, but one in 
which a great and very just interest is felt in some great trading districts, — from 
the 1st of June, 1861. That is the first important engagement into which France 
enters. Her second and greater engagement is postponed to the 1st of October, 
1861. I think it is probably in the knowledge of the Committee that this post- 
ponement is stipulated under a pledge given by the Government of France to the 
classes who there, as here, have supposed themselves to be interested in the main- 
tenance of prohibition. On the 1st of October, then, in the year 1861, France 
engages to reduce the duties and to take away the prohibitions on all the articles of 
British production mentioned in a certain list, in such a manner that no duty upon 
any one of those articles shall thereafter exceed thirty per cent ad valorem. I do 
not speak of articles of food, which do not materially enter into the treaty; but the 
list to which I refer, includes all the staples of British manufacture, whether of 
yarns, flax, hemp, hair, wool, silk, or cotton, — all manufactures of skins, leather, 
bark, wood; iron, and all other metals; glass, stoneware, earthenware, or porcelain. 
I will not go through the whole list; it is indeed needless, for I am not aware of 
any great or material article that is omitted. France also engages to commute those 
ad valorem duties into rated duties by a separate convention 1 , to be framed for the 
purpose of giving effect to the terms I have described. But if there should be a 
disagreement as to the terms on which they should be rated under the convention, 
then the maximum chargeable on every class at thirty per cent ad valorem will be 



506 EIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

protection so high as thirty per cent, we must recall the condi- 
tions of the case. Hitherto the system in France had been one 
of absolute prohibition. It was the system of monopolies in all 
its perfection and completeness. Suddenly to break down this 
high wall of exclusion was politically impossible. To tell the 
great ironmasters, the cotton-spinners, the woollen manufacturers, 
that they were to pass at a step from monopoly to free competi- 
tion, would be to shake the very Throne. A duty in their favor 
of no more than ten per cent would have seemed a mockery to 
men who had been accustomed to command their own prices. 
The Emperor dared not open the battle with a lower protection 
than thirty per cent. It was for the English Government to have 
this brought down to as near ten per cent as they could. M. 
Eouher, who believed faithfully in free competition, hoped and 
intended that this process of beating down the great duty allowed 
by the terms of the Treaty should be effectively carried out. 
Cobden knew much better than his critics how much remained 
to be done ; but then he trusted M. Eouher and the Emperor. 
This was the merit of his diplomacy, that he knew whom he 
could trust ; and he always felt that here, and not in perpetual 
suspicion, is the secret of effective and wise diplomacy, as dis- 
tinguished from the policy of craft and war. The result showed 
in the present instance, that the Emperor and M. Eouher de- 
served his confidence. 

Cobden arrived in Paris on April 20th, and it was the 5th of 
November before his labors were concluded. They were of the 
most toilsome and fatiguing kind. The circumstances were with- 
out precedent or example, and the whole course of procedure 
had to be created. When the English commissioners reached 
Paris, they found that the French Government had agreed to 
refer the subject of the rates of duty to the Conseil Superieur, a 
body rarely convoked, and consisting of the greatest commercial 

levied at the proper period, not in the form of a rated duty, but upon the value ; 
and the value will be determined by the process now in use in the English 
customs. 

"I come next, sir, to the English covenants. England engages, with a limited 
power of exception, which we propose to exercise only with regard to. two or three 
articles, to abolish immediately and totally all duties upon all manufactured goods. 
There will be a sweep, summary, entire, and absolute, of what are known as manu- 
factured goods from the face of the British tariff. Farther, England engages to 
reduce the duty on brandy, from 15s. the gallon to the level of the colonial duty, 
viz. 8s. Id. per gallon. She engages to reduce immediately the duty on foreign 
wine. In the treaty it is of course French wine which is specified; but it is per- 
fectly understood between France and ourselves, that we proceed with regard to the 
commodities of all countries alike. England engages, then, to reduce the duty on 
wine, from a rate nearly reaching 5s. lOd. per gallon, to 3s. per gallon. She 
engages, besides a present reduction, farther to reduce that duty from the 1st of 
April, 1861, to a scale which has reference to the strength of the wine measured by 
the quantity of spirit it contains." 



iEr.56.] THE TARIFF. 507 

men in France. The Conseil Superieur took evidence from 
French and English manufacturers and producers, as to the com- 
parative cost of production in the two countries. Iron had been 
dealt with in the Treaty itself, and it was the only article on 
which the rate was there definitely fixed. All other articles were 
left open. What Cobden and his colleagues had to do was in the 
first instance to prepare the English witnesses, to collect and 
shape their evidence, and to have it carefully translated for the 
Conseil Superieur. This tedious process lasted until the end of 
July. It was August before the sittings of the definitive Com- 
mission began. The business which Cobden and his two official 
colleagues had now to do, was nothing less than to go through 
the whole list of British products and manufactures, and to 
prove in each case to the French Commissioners that from the 
circumstances of the special trade they ought to be content with 
a given duty. Every day at two o'clock the three Englishmen 
sat round a table in one of the saloons of the palace in the Quai 
d'Orsai, with about three times as many representatives of the 
hostile interests of France. The various products of British 
industry came up in turn. The French Commissioners cried for 
their import duty of thirty per cent. Cobden called for ten per 
cent. Then the battle began. The English numbered no more 
than the Graces, while the French were as many as the Muses. 
The French, in strategical language, were close to their base of 
operations, for if they wanted more knowledge as to a given 
trade, there were men who were quite able and only too happy 
to supply it in the next street or in the anteroom. The English- 
men were dependent on the accident of the right man having 
come to Paris from home. They were obliged to represent all 
branches of industry,' to master the important facts of a hundred 
special trades, to meet from their own second-hand knowledge, 
picked up the evening before and digested in the forenoon, an- 
tagonists whose knowledge was personal and acquired by a life's 
experience. The enterprise called for nothing less than the dex- 
terity and pliancy of a first-rate advocate, united to the dogged 
industry of the compiler of a commercial encyclopaedia. Iron 
gave most trouble. Though the rate had been fixed in the 
Treaty, the classification of its descriptions remained. The iron- 
masters, Cobden told Mr. Bright, " are the landed interest of 
France. They constitute the praetorian guards of monopoly. 
Almost everybody of rank and wealth is directly or indirectly 
interested in iron-works of some kind. Bankers, courtiers, au- 
thors (Thiers and St. Marc Girardin, to wit), bishops, and priests, 
are to be found in the ranks of the ironmasters. M. Schneider — 
the Duke of Bichmond of the interest — is one of the Commis- 
sion sitting to try himself. The French witnesses, of course, all 



508 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

tell the old story of alarm and ruin, and discourse most feelingly 
of the misery which their workpeople will suffer if their protec- 
tion be withdrawn I am transported back twenty years." 

Apart from the monotony of these proceedings, what to Cobden 
was harder to bear than tedium was the dishonesty and bad faith 
of some of those with whom he had to deal. The more unscrupu- 
lous among the protectionists falsified the facts of their various 
trades, and played dishonest tricks with returns of cost, wages, 
and prices. On one occasion, a French commissioner, who had 
made himself the mouthpiece of the protectionists, tried to counter 
some demand of Cobden's by one of these fabrications. Cobden, 
worn out by the iteration of such shameless devices, could no 
longer contain himself, and in angry tones called out too crude a 
statement of the truth. But he was usually as long-suffering as 
he was tenacious. There was one member of the Commission on 
the French side whose conduct gave him constant encouragement 
and support. Every day brought fresh proof of the ability, moral 
courage, sincerity, and good faith of M. Eouher. These are Cob- 
den's own words, and he adds with enthusiasm that his name 
will go down to posterity as the Huskisson or Peel of France. 
No ordinary man could have effected in a twelvemonth changes 
which in England were spread over twenty years. 

The strain of the conflict and its preparation, both on Cob- 
den and his colleagues, was very great. The discussions at the 
Foreign Office usually lasted from two until six o'clock, when 
they went to dine. Later in the evening came laborious inter- 
views with commercial experts from England, who brought tables, 
returns, extracts from ledgers. Commercial friends at home were 
apt to be impatient, and Cobden was obliged to write long letters 
of encouragement and exhortation. In the "morning, after two or 
three hours devoted to correspondence and further interviews, 
soon after eleven Cobden proceeded to the offices of the English 
commissioners in the Eue de l'Universite, where his colleagues 
had already arranged the matter acquired in the previous evening. 
This they examined and discussed and prepared for the meeting 
at two o'clock, when the encounter was once more opened. 

Occasional relief was enjoyed in varied social intercourse. There 
were great official banquets with ministers of state, blazing w T ith 
stars and decorations. There were the balls and receptions of the 
ministers' wives, where Cobden ungallantly noted that the num- 
ber of handsome toilettes was more striking than the beauty of 
their wearers. He was taken one day to see the studio of Ary 
Scheffer ; and on another day he went with Clara Novello to visit 
Eossini at his villa at Passy. The composer's vivacity and clever- 
ness pleased Cobden, and he was perhaps not displeased when 
the old man asked why the English were in a panic, and declared 



JJr.86.] THE TARIFF. 509 

his indignation at such childishness in a great nation for whom 
he had all his life long felt the deepest respect. One night at 
the table of Aries Dufour, Cobden met Enfantin, the head of the 
Saint Simonians, and the most wonderful and impressive figure in 
the history of modern enthusiasm. The party sat until midnight, 
talking over the question of a mutual limitation of the armaments 
of France and England, and all agreed that unless something were 
done to put a stop to this warlike rivalry, a conflict must inevi- 
tably break out. " If you would preserve peace" said Enfantin, 
amending the saying of the old world, " then prepare for peace? 

Cobden was more than once a guest at the house of the Mar- 
quis de Boissy, and the more famous Marquise, better known as 
the Countess Guiccioli. Cobden's simple mind was surprised at 
the fact that, so far from having lost caste by the notoriety of her 
relations with Lord Byron, the lady moved in the highest circles 
in Paris and was much sought after. The Marquis was a strong 
old Tory, vigorously opposed to Free Trade and every other re- 
form ; he predicted that the Emperor's concessions to England 
would be his ruin ; confidently foretold a reign of terror for Italy, 
the death of Victor Emmanuel on the scaffold, and " many other 
equally pleasant and probable events." Cobden listened to all 
this nonsense with unruffled humor, as was his wont ; few men 
haye ever been better able to suffer fools gladly. Only once he 
nearly broke down, when, at a fete given by an American of high 
position to celebrate the Fourth of July, the host made a speech 
to French and English guests in that singularly bad taste which 
American orators so often think due to the majesty of their 
country. Cobden was always a missionary. At a dinner where 
most of the guests happened to be eminent surgeons and physi- 
cians, he tried hard to enlist them against vivisection as practised 
at the Veterinary College ; " but I am afraid," he says, " that I 
did not meet with much success." He delighted in everything 
that extended his knowledge of men and cities. On the occasion 
of the Emperor's fete (Aug. 15), he walked about the streets all 
the evening, and observing that the great thoroughfares were 
closed against carriages, and kept clear for the exclusive use of 
pedestrians from seven until ten, he marks that " such considera- 
tion would not have been shown to the masses at the expense of 
the rich and luxurious classes in England." 

There was one group with whom after a very short experience 
Cobden found it impossible to carry on any intercourse. " I have 
ceased to go among the Orleanist party," he told Mr. Bright; 
" they are hardly rational or civil." Whatever we may think of 
the Empire, there can only be one opinion of its Orleanist foes, that 
eyeless, impotent, shifty faction, who dreamed and dream on that 
kingdoms can be governed by literary style, and that the mighty 



510 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

agitations of a newly revolutionized society can be ruled by the 
petty combinations and infantile tactics of drawing-room intrigue. 

A break in the tedium of his work, but perhaps a break of 
doubtful refreshment, is mentioned in a letter fb his friend Mr. 
Hargreaves: — "For the last three days," he says, "I have been at- 
tending the debates in the Corps Legislatif on the Treaty. The scene 
reminded me of our omti old doings in the House of Commons 
twenty years ago. The protectionists were very savage. Being 
recognized in the strangers' tribune, I became the object of attack 
and defence. It was really the old thing over again. As I was 
leaving the house in a shower of rain, one of the members who 
avowed himself a protectionist, offered me his umbrella, and he 
remarked, ' If we had been still under the constitutional regime, 
your Treaty would never have passed. Not twenty-five members 
of the Chamber would have been for it.' " l 

Of one or two of the most important of Cobden's conversations, 
it is worth while to transcribe the reports from his own journal. 
On March 25 he met Count Persigny, who was then on one of his 
frequent visits from Albert Gate to Paris. - 

" He expressed himself," says Cobden, " in strong terms to me 
upon the subject of the present system of government in France ; 
says the Emperor has no independent responsible ministers ; that 
he governs, himself, in the minutest details of administration ; 
that he has been gradually more and more assuming to himself 
all the powers of the State ; that for two years after the forma- 
tion of the Imperial government there were men in his Cabinet, 
such as Drouyn de l'Huys, St. Arnaud, and himself (Persigny), 
who exercised an independent judgment on his projects, and that 
he was then willing to yield to the advice and arguments of his 
council, but that latterly he had been accustomed to act upon his 
own impulse, or only to consult one of his Ministers ; that his 
Cabinet frequently found decrees in the Moniteur of which they 
had never heard, and that this habit of secret and personal man- 
agement opened the door to all kinds of intrigues, and gave the 
opportunity for unworthy individuals, male and female, to exer- 
cise an irresponsible and improper influence over the acts of the 
Emperor. He blamed M. Fould for having encouraged and 
flattered the Emperor into this habit of ruling by his personal 
will, independent of his Ministers, by which he was bringing 
great danger on -his dynasty ; that he had not the genius of the 
first Napoleon, to whom his flatterers compared him, or his mas- 
tery of details ; and that in attempting to interfere with every- 
thing, nothing was properly superintended. That he (Count de 
P.) was very unhappy at this state of things ; that he had been 
for some years remonstrating against it ; that he was now penning 

1 To William Hargreaves. May 2, 1860. 



^T.56.] THE TAKIFF. 511 

another memorial on the subject, a rough copy of which he had 
in his pocket ; and that if he failed to effect the desired reform, 
he should retire from the service of the Emperor, and withdraw 
altogether from public life ; that he was entitled to a salary of 
120(k a year as senator, or to a pension of 4000£ a year as privy 
councillor; that he should not accept either, but would gather 
together bis small private fortune and retire upon that." 

"April 26. — Called on M. Herbet, the Chairman of the French 
commission for arranging the details of the Treaty. M. Herbet 
had been six years Consul at London. In the course of conver- 
sation he remarked good-humoredly upon the aristocratic manners 
of the English people. When he went first to London he was a 
junior attache to the Embassy, and he was then a welcome guest 
at the tables of the great ; but when he was appointed Consul- 
general, with important duties and 40,000 francs per annum, he 
was no longer comme ilfaut, and found himself hardly worthy to 
be the guest of our principal merchants. 

"May 20. — Breakfasted with Emile de Girardin, *and after- 
wards sat with him in his garden whilst he gave me the Bona- 
parte programme of foreign policy, which in brief amounted to 
this : — that France must extend her frontier to the Ehine, after 
which the Emperor could afford to grant political liberty to 
his people ; that all Belgium, with the exception of Brussels 
and Antwerp, would willingly annex itself to France ; that the 
German provinces to the left of the Ehine, though not speaking 
French, were Catholic, and therefore inclined towards annexa- 
tion, and might be bribed by a promise of an exemption from 
taxation for a number of years to become a portion of France; 
that Prussia might be indemnified by the absorption of the smaller 
German States, and Austria be pacified by a slice of Turkey ; that 
after this extension of territory to the natural boundaries of 
France, the Bonaparte dynasty would be secured, and the Em- 
peror would enter into an engagement for a complete system of 
disarmament ; that in no other way can this dynasty be enabled 
to grant liberal institutions, and without these there can be no 
security for the peace of Europe ; that the family of the King of 
Belgium might be compensated by a crown at Constantinople, 
etcetera. I laughed repeatedly at the naivete with which he went 
over this unprincipled programme of foreign policy. 

" June 8. — Called on Prince Napoleon, who in the course of 
conversation described the state of the relations between the 
governments of England and France as being very unsatisfactory ; 
' Us choses vont mal.' He alluded to the danger of our constantly 
arming in England, the uneasiness which it gave to the people, 
and the tendency which it had, by the burden of taxation that it 
laid on them, to reconcile the English to a war as the only means 



512 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

of getting rid of the evil. He complained of the vacillating con- 
duct of our Government in its foreign relations; that it never 
seemed to know its own mind, which was constantly liable to be 
influenced by the state of opinion in England and by the majority 
of the House of Commons. He alluded to the question of the 
annexation of Savoy, and remarked that our Government knew 
that it was inevitable ; that he had himself told Lord Cowley that 
it was absolutely necessary for the satisfaction of the French 
people, who required some return for the sacrifices they had made 
for the independence of Italy. He spoke of our Tory party as 
being just as hostile to the Bonapartes as were their predecessors 
of the time of the first Empire ; that some of the Whig party 
were of a similar character. He mentioned Lord Clarendon as 
being a ' thorough aristocrat,' who had told him that Bright and 
myself were a couple of fools who thought of converting England 
into a Kepublic. 

"June 10. — In consequence of a letter which I received from 
Prince Napoleon's Secretary, I called at the Palais Eoyal to-day, 
and had a conversation with the Prince. He said that the polit- 
ical relations of the two countries were very far from being in a 
satisfactory state ; that he feared the Austrians were going to 
interfere in Naples ; that he suspected they were encouraged by 
the confidence they had in the support of our Court and the Prince 
Consort, and that the English Government would not join France 
in preventing it. The consequence might be that the Piedmon- 
tese would interfere also, and a war would be the consequence 
which would compel France to take a part, or else allow the Aus- 
trians to march to Turin, which they would certainly do if they 
had not a French army to oppose them; that England might 
avert this by undertaking with her fleet to prevent an expedition 
from leaving Trieste ; that no bloodshed could arise ; and that the 
least England could do would be to assist France in maintaining 
the principle of non-intervention. He dreaded the complications 
that would arise, and feared that it might lead to a rupture 
between France and England. 

" He then said he was about to mention a delicate matter, and 
he suggested that I ought to be appointed Ambassador to France ; 
that this would do more than anything besides to cement the 
good relations between the two countries. As this was said with 
a good deal of emphasis, and appeared to be the communication 
he had in view when he sent for me, I replied, with equal empha- 
sis, ' Impossible ! you really do not understand us in England ! ' 
I then explained exactly my position towards Lord Cowley ; that 
I had from the first been only an interloper on his domain ; that 
he had acted with great magnanimity in tolerating my intrusion ; 
that a man of narrow mind would have resented it, and that I felt 



jEt.56.] THE TARIFF. 513 

much indebted to him for his tolerance of me, etcetera. The Prince 
remarked that a man of first-rate capacity ought to have resented 
it, and either have given up his post altogether to me, or to have 
resisted my encroachment on his functions. I remarked that Lord 
Cowley had frankly owned that I had superior knowledge to him- 
self on questions of a commercial or economical character, and 
that, considering how much they had been my study, it was not 
derogatory to him to. grant me precedence in my own specialty. 
I begged him to say no more upon the subject. 

"Jane 14. — To-day a fete-day at Paris, a holiday, a review, 
flags, and illuminations. The Emperor was well received by the 
populace on his way from the railway to the Tuileries, and in 
going and coming from the Champs de Mars, where he passed 
in review upwards of 50,000 troops and national guards. The 
occasion of these demonstrations was the celebration of the annex- 
ation of Savoy and Nice to France. An acquisition of more terri- 
tory is as popular with the masses here and in the United States 
(and would be in England if we had anything but the sea for our 
frontier), as in ancient times it was with despots and conquerors. 
The world is governed by the force of traditions, after they have 
lost by the change of time and circumstances all relation to the 
existing state of human affairs. It is only by the greater diffusion 
of knowledge in the science of political economy, that men will 
cease to covet their neighbor's land, from the conviction that they 
may possess themselves of all that it produces by a much cheaper, 
as well as honester, process than by war and conquest. But until 
this time arrives, we do not insure ourselves against the conquer- 
ing propensities of despotic sovereigns by transferring the supreme 
power to the masses of the people. 

"July 16. — Called on Lord Cowley, and referring to a sugges- 
tion which he and M. Eouher had made that I should seek an 
audience with the Emperor, in order to strengthen his Free Trade 
tendencies by my conversation with him, I alluded to the warlike 
preparations which had lately been going on in England, and con- 
fessed a repugnance to meeting the Emperor, to whom I had 
promised last November that if he entered on the path of Free 
Trade without reserve, it would be accepted by the English people 
as a proof that he meditated a policy of peace. Yet in the midst 
of my labors upon the details of the French tariff, in which I had 
every day found greater proofs of the honest intentions of the 
French Government, I observed a constant increase in the military 
preparations in England, which completely falsified my promises 
to the Emperor. And now we were daily threatened with a pro- 
posal for a large outlay for fortifications. I added that, if the 
latter scheme were announced, I should feel disinclined again to 
see the Emperor." 

33 



514 LIFE OF COBDEN. [I860. 

It was not long before the proposal was launched, and Cobden 
was perfectly prepared for it. The momentous subject of military 
expenditure had in truth divided Cobden's active interest with the 
Treaty since the beginning of the year. It had been incessantly 
in his mind, harassing and afflicting him. If he had been capable 
of faltering or despondency, it would have unnerved him for the 
difficult contest which he was every day waging. The financial 
arrangements connected with the Treaty itself, had not been 
carried through Parliament very smoothly. The episode of the 
Paper duties in the House of Lords was a curious interruption to 
serious business. Lord John Eussell had brought in a Eeform 
Bill, but the Prime Minister was notoriously hostile to it, and the 
Parliament was thoroughly Palmerstonian at heart. It was a 
session of confusion and cross purposes. " The House of Commons 
is an uncertain sea," wrote one of the most competent observers 
to Cobden, " soon up with any shift of the wind. It got disor- 
ganized by the proposed Eeform Bill. Members were determined 
not to pass it, yet they dared not commit themselves to a vote 
against it. Delay became the watchword, and nothing was passed 
lest the road should be cleared for the Eeform Bill. Every day 
the House fell deeper into disorganization, and it seemed unable 
to recover its balance." 

In the spring and summer, the feeling in England against 
France had become more and more deeply colored with suspicion 
and alarm. It had approached what an eminent correspondent 
of Cobden's called a "maniacal alarm." There was in this 
country, he was told, " such a resolute and one-sided determina- 
tion to throw all responsibility on our neighbors, to presume the 
worst, to construe everything in that sense, to take credit for per- 
fect blamelessness, as mere argument cannot surmount." It was 
observed by one who was himself a churchman, that among the 
most active promoters of the panic and the necessity for immedi- 
ate preparation were the country clergy. A famous bishop went 
about telling a story of a Frenchman who had told him that he 
knew the Emperor's mind to be quite undecided whether to work 
with England for liberty, or to work against England for abso- 
lutism, beginning the work with an invasion. The annexation of 
Savoy had kindled a fire in England which a breath of air might 
blow into a conflagration. 

The experts in foreign politics surpassed themselves in the 
elaborateness of their ignorance. One peer who had actually been 
minister for foreign affairs, gravely argued that if the annexation 
of Savoy should take place, the formation of a strong kingdom in 
the north of Italy would not be feasible, as that kingdom would 
be open at both extremities, by the Alps to France, and by the 
Mincio to Austria. The newspapers and debates teemed with 



Ml. 56.] THE TARIFF. 515 

foolish jargon of this kind. It is like a return to the light of day 
to come upon that short but most pithy speech (Mar. 2, 1860), in 
which the orator said that he did not want the Government to 
give the slightest countenance to the project of annexation, but, 
he exclaimed in a memorable phrase, " Perish Savoy — though 
Savoy will not perish and will not suffer — rather than the Gov- 
ernment of England should be involved in enmity with the Gov- 
ernment and people of France in a matter in which we have no 
concern whatever." 

Unfortunately, Ministers shared the common panic. Lord 
Palmerston had, until the winter of 1859, been the partisan of 
the French Empire. He had been so ready to recognize it, that 
his haste involved him in a quarrel with his colleagues and the 
Court. He was the minister of that generation who, more than 
any other, had shown penetration and courage enough firmly to 
withstand the Germanism which Prince Albert, in natural ac- 
cordance with his education and earliest sympathies, had brought 
into the palace. He had come into power in 1859, mainly because 
the people expected him to stand by the Emperor in the emancipa- 
tion of Italy. But in the winter of 1859 he wrote a letter to Lord 
John Eussell, then the Foreign Secretary, saying that though until 
lately he had strong confidence in the fair intentions of the 
Emperor towards England, yet he now began to suspect that the 
intention of avenging Waterloo had only lain dormant. " You 
may rely upon it," he said to the Duke of Somerset, " that at the 
bottom of his heart there rankles a deep and inextinguishable 
desire to humble and punish England." * Later than this, at the 
beginning of 1860, it is true that he admitted that although the 
Emperor differed from us about certain conditions, and the inter- 
pretation of certain conditions of the treaty of peace with Eussia, 
yet the points in dispute were settled substantially in conformity 
with our views. " There is no ground," he said, " for imputing to 
him bad faith in his conduct towards us as allies." Notwith- 
standing this, the imputation of bad faith as a future possibility 
lay persistently in men's minds. Lord Palmerston' s apprehensions 
were shared by all the other members of his Government, save 
two ; they were echoed in the reverberations of ten thousand lead- 
ing articles; and they were eagerly seized by a public which seems 
to be never so happy as when it is conjuring up dangers in which 
it only half believes. 

Lord John Eussell wrote a characteristic note to Cobden (July 
3), announcing a formal notification of an article which prolonged 
the labors of the commission until November 1. "I hope," Lord 
John Eussell proceeds, " that long before that time arrives, you 

1 Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston. 



516 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

will have completed your glorious work, and laid the foundations 
of such an intertwining of relations between England and France 
that it will not be easy to separate them. It is curious and amus- 
ing to me, who remember how Huskisson was run down for pro- 
posing a duty on silk goods so low as 30 per cent, to hear the 
protectionists abuse France for not having a much lower duty. 
My belief is that 15 per cent will protect their chief manufactures. 
In the mean time I wish to see this tight little island made almost 
impregnable. It is the sole seat of freedom in Europe which can 
resist a powerful despot, and I am for ' civil and religious liberty 
all over the world.' " 

There was one powerful man in the Cabinet who did his best 
to stem the dangerous tide. But though in the session of 1860 
Mr. Gladstone had delighted the House and the country by the 
eloquence and the mastery of his budget speech of February, and 
by the consummate skill with which he conducted his case in the 
debates that followed, yet he was a long way from the command- 
ing eminence at which he arrived afterwards when Lord Palmer- 
ston's place in the popular imagination became empty. If he had 
left Lord Palmerston's Government, the effect would perhaps 
hardly have been greater than it was when he left the Govern- 
ment of Sir Ptobert Peel in 1845, or that of Lord Palmerston him- 
self in 1855. But the struggle in the forum of his own conscience 
was long and severe. He felt all the weakness of the evidence 
by which his colleagues justified the urgency of their suspicions 
and the necessity for preparation. He revolted from the frank 
irrationality of the common panicmonger of the street and the 
newspaper. As a thrifty steward he groaned over the foolish 
profusion with which he saw his masters flinging money out of 
the window. He was in very frequent correspondence with 
Cobden, and Cobden brought to bear upon him all his powers of 
persuasion, supported by a strong and accurate knowledge of all 
that the French Government had to show in defence of their own 
innocence. It is hardly too much to say that Cobden at this time 
subjected Mr. Gladstone to the same intense intellectual and 
moral pressure to which he had subjected Peel fifteen years before. 
But the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the spirit of Lord Palm- 
erston's appeal to Cobden himself to come within the citadel, 
decided that he could do more good by remaining in the Govern- 
ment than by leaving it. At the close of the session, marked as 
it had been by more dazzling proofs than his career had ever 
furnished before of eloquence and intellectual power, his position 
in Parliament and the country was certainly weaker than it had 
been six months ago. 

Cobden at least was no harsh judge. At the beginning of the 
year, when writing to Mr. Bright about the Treaty, he had said, 



^Et. 56.] THE TARIFF. 517 

" I have told you before that Gladstone has shown much heart in 

this business He has a strong aversion to the waste of 

money on our armaments. He has no class feeling about the 
Services. He has much more of our sympathies. It is a pity 
you cannot avoid hurting his convictions by such sallies as 

[ — sally not now worth reproducing] He has more in 

common with you and me than any other man of his power in 
Britain." And later in the year, " I agree with you that Gladstone 
overworks himself. But I suspect that he has a conscience which 
is at times a troublesome partner for a cabinet minister. I make 
allowances for him, for I have never yet been able to define to my 
own satisfaction how far a man with a view to utility ought to 
allow himself to be merged in a body of men called a government, 
or how far he should preserve his individuality. If he goes into 
a government at all, he must make up his mind sometimes to 
compromise with his own convictions for a time, and at all events 
to be overborne by a majority of his colleagues." 

Meanwhile, the Government insisted on what they regarded as 
the policy of security. On July 10, Cobden wrote to Lord Palm- 
erston a long letter, calmly and earnestly urging reasons against a 
new scheme of defensive armaments. He began with a few words 
about the Treaty, and the date at which they might expect to end 
their labors. The Treaty, he said, had been the engrossing task 
of the French Government for the last eight months, and M. 
Rouher was then foregoing his autumn holidays in order to com- 
plete the work. Cobden then goes on : — 

" The systematic and resolute manner in which these reforms 
have been entered upon leave me no reason to doubt that the 
Government contemplate a complete revolution in their econom- 
ical policy, which will lead to an early and large increase in the 
commercial intercourse of the two countries, and to an ameliora- 
tion of their social and political relations. Now it is evident that 
this is a very different prospect from that which is generally en- 
tertained in England, where the public mind has been systemati- 
cally misled, apparently with the design of effecting some tempo- 
rary and sinister object. The extraordinary military and warlike 
displays of the last few months in England have also tended to 
diminish the hopes which were at first entertained in connection 
with the Treaty. And this state of discouragement in the public 
mind has been increased by the rumor that it is the intention of 
the Government to propose a large increase to our permanent de- 
fences. For as this will be to commit ourselves to a future and 
somewhat remote expenditure, rather than to provide against a 
present danger, it would be tantamount to a declaration on the 
part of the Government that they have no faith in any ultimate 
advantages from the Treaty. 



518 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

" It is on this point that I am more immediately led to address 
you. It seems to me that the two questions are intimately con- 
nected ; and I venture to suggest that in fairness to the public 
and to Parliament, as well as to the Government itself, the result 
of our negotiations here should be known, before the country is 
pledged to a further large outlay for defensive armaments. Let it 
De understood that I ask merely for the delay of a few months ; 
and I ask this on the ground that there is not only a general igno- 
rance in England as to what the value of the Treaty is likely to 
be (for it cannot be known even to myself until the French tariff 
is ready for publication), but that a widespread suspicion has been 
created that the French Government is playing an uncandid part 
in the negotiations. Should the Treaty prove as unsatisfactory 
in its details as is predicted by those who are urging us to an 
increase of our warlike preparations, I shall have nothing to say 
in opposition to such a policy. But if, as I expect, the French 
Government should take but a single step from their prohibition 
system to a tariff more liberal than that of the Zollverein or the 
United States, then I think the public mind in England will 
undergo a considerable change as to the prospects of peace with 
our great neighbor ; and it is doubtful whether the country would, 
on the very eve of such a change, subject itself to increased 
burdens in anticipation of a rupture with its new customer. All 
I desire is that it should be allowed a choice when in possession 
of a full knowledge of these circumstances. 

" There is another reason why I am induced to press this sub- 
ject on your attention. It has been evident to me from the first 
that political considerations entered more largely than those of an 
economical kind into the motives which induced the Emperor to 
embark at this time on the career of Commercial Reform. Doubt- 
less he was satisfied that this new policy would be ultimately ad- 
vantageous to his people ; but there was no necessity for immediate 
action, and, considering the great derangement of powerful inter- 
ests, and the large amount of opposition and unpopularity in- 
volved in the change, there was nothing which invited one even so 
bold as himself to enter prematurely upon the task. His imme- 
diate objects were to strengthen the friendly relations of the 
French and English peoples, and to give the world an assurance 
that he did not contemplate a career of war and conquest. And 
I did not hesitate to assure him and his most influential advisers 
that nothing would be so cordially accepted by the English people, 
as a proof of his pacific intentions towards them, as the adoption 
without reserve of a liberal commercial policy. 

" It will be readily perceived that if, in addition to all that has 
been done, the Government should announce a great scheme of 
defensive armaments, and thus, before my labors are completed, 



.Ex. 56.] THE TARIFF. 519 

discredit by anticipation the political value of the Treaty, it will 
considerably weaken my position here. Bear in mind that the 
duties are not yet finally settled on any of the articles of the 
French tariff, every item of which has to be discussed and ar- 
ranged by the plenipotentiaries, between the extreme rates of five 
and twenty per cent. I do not allege that the French Govern- 
ment will be led by the hostile bearing of England to adopt a 
system of retaliation in the terms of the Treaty. But in the 
important discussions on the details of the French tariff (and it 
is wholly a question of details), I shall be placed in a very disad- 
vantageous position, and shall find myself deprived of those argu- 
ments with which I most successfully urged the adoption of the 
Free Trade policy, if in the mean time the present Government 
commits itself, and, what is still more important in the sight of 
France, if it be allowed to commit the Free Trade and popular 
party in England, to a permanent attitude of hostility and mis- 
trust." 

The answer to this weighty remonstrance was forthcoming a 
week after Cobden wrote it, and it came through the House of 
Commons. On July 23 Lord Palmerston made his speech. He 
introduced a resolution for constructing works for the defence ' of 
certain royal dockyards and arsenals, Dover and Portland, and for 
erecting a central arsenal. After speaking in general language of 
the horizon being darkened by clouds that betokened the possibility 
of a tempest, Lord Palmerston proceeded : — " The Committee of 
course knows that in the main I am speaking of our immediate 
neighbors across the Channel, and there is no use in disguising it. 
It is in no unfriendly spirit that I am speaking. No one has any 
right to take offence at considerations and reflections which are 
purely founded upon the principles of self-defence." He ad- 
mitted that he hoped much from the Treaty, but a treaty was a 
frail defence. It would be folly to rely on its future effects, so 
long as our sea frontier was vulnerable. There were, moreover, 
circumstances in the state of Europe leading us to think that we 
might soon have to defend ourselves from attack. France had an 
army of 600,000 ; of these 400,000 were actually under arms, 
and the remainder could be called into the ranks in a fortnight. 
He did not mean to say that such a host was raised for the delib- 
erate purpose of aggression, but still the possession of power to 
aggress frequently inspires the will to aggress. It was not only 
the army that suggested these apprehensions. The navy, too, 
had been greatly strengthened, so that our neighbors would have 
the means of transporting within a very few hours a large and 
formidable body of troops to our shores. 

Cobden's plea in reply to all this had been given by anticipa- 
tion, in a postscript to the letter from which I have already 



520 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

quoted. " I am of course writing," lie had said, " with the con- 
viction that France has done nothing in the way of warlike prepa- 
rations to justify our demonstrations in England. I have had 
good opportunities of satisfying myself that the most monstrous 
exaggerations have been current in England respecting the naval 
strength of this country." And this was quite true. Cobden had 
taken as much trouble as the responsible head of a department, or 
much more perhaps, to find out from visits to Nantes and else- 
where, as well as from constant conversations with the French 
authorities and the English naval attache, whether any real 
change in the proportion between the imperial navy and our own 
was taking place. He had satisfied himself that there was no 
evidence whatever of the alleged change. 

Lord Palmerston seems to have handed Cobden's letter to Lord 
John Eussell, who wrote in reply : — 

" July 31, 1860. 

" My dear Mr. Cobden, — I infer from your last letter that 
you think the plan for fortifications will interfere with the ar- 
rangements of the Commercial Treaty. I cannot understand this. 
The Emperor wishes to defend France ; he completes Cherbourg ; 
he adopts a peace army of 600,000 men. Not a word of com- 
plaint. We add to our navy, and propose to fortify the arsenals 
where they are built and repaired. We are accused immediately 
of warlike intentions. Is it to be deliberately said that France 
may be armed, but that we should be unarmed ? Belgium, Ant- 
werp, Dover, Portsmouth, would in that case soon fall into French 
possession. * 

" I am anxious for the completion of the Commercial Treaty. 
But I cannot consent to place my country at the mercy of France. 
— I remain, yours very truly, 

"J. Eussell." 

To this Cobden replied (Aug. 2, 1860) with an emphatic state- 
ment, which he often repeated in various forms, but which those 
who accuse him of wishing for peace at any price carefully over- 
look : — 

" My dear Lord John Eussell, — So far am I from wishing 
that ' we should be unarmed,' and so little am I disposed to ' place 
my country at the mercy of France ' (to quote the language of 
your note), that / would, if necessary, spend one hundred millions 
sterling to maintain an irresistible superiority over France at sea. 
I had satisfied myself that we were in this position of security, 
and that there was no foundation for the reports of the sudden or 
unusual increase of the French navy before I addressed my letter 



JJr.56.] THE TARIFF. 521 

to Lord Palmerston Eecollect that we had voted for our 

armaments for this year nearly 30,000,000^., before the fortifica- 
tion plan was proposed. I do not see any limit to the future ex- 
penditure if, when a further increase is objected to, every existing 
provision is to be ignored, and we are met with the answer that, 
unless the additional outlay be agreed to, we shall be unarmed." 

On 'the same day on which Cobden wrote in this way, Mr. 
Bright, in a speech of the highest power and sagacity, had shown 
equally clearly that it was not the policy of security which he 
opposed, but the mistaken means of carrying it out. After illus- 
trating the almost daily advances that were taking place in the 
engines of war, Mr. Bright said : — "I am one of those who be- 
lieve that at a time like this, when these remarkable changes are 
taking place, .... the course of an honest and economic gov- 
ernment should be to go on slowly, cautiously, and inquiringly, 
and not commit themselves to a vast expenditure which twelve 
months' experience may show to be of no value at all." 

If it was answered that the occasion was urgent, then Cobden's 
rejoinder by anticipation in his letter to Lord Palmerston was 
perfectly good, namely, that the expenditure on fortifications was 
remote and spread over a number of years, and therefore could 
hardly be designed to meet an immediate and pressing danger. 
Lord Palmerston's speech we now see, at the distance of a score 
of years, to have been a dangerous provocation to Napoleon in- 
stantly to make the very descent for which we declared ourselves 
to be unprepared. If Napoleon had really cherished the bitter 
design of avenging Waterloo, of which Lord Palmerston suspected 
him, he would not have waited for the completion of the fortifica- 
tions. The effect in Paris was what Cobden had foreseen, as the 
entries in his journals testify. 

" July 25. — Called on Lord Cowley, and in the course of con- 
versation expressed my disapproval of Lord Palmerston's project 
for fortifying the British coasts at the expense of ten or twelve 
millions sterling. I also censured the tone of his speech in al- 
luding to France as the probable aggressor upon England. The 
scheme and the speech were a mockery and insult to me, whilst 
engaged in framing the Treaty of Commerce ; and I frankly 
avowed that, if I had not my heart in the business in which I was 
engaged here, I would return home and do the utmost in my 
power to destroy the Ministry, and thus prevent it from commit- 
ting the popular party to the policy of the present Government. 
He admitted that Lord Palmerston's speech was injudicious in 
having alluded so exclusively to the danger to be apprehended 
from France. 

" July 26. — Lord Palmerston's speech in the House of Com- 



522 LIFE OF COBDEN. [I860. 

mons has produced considerable emotion in the political circles of 
Paris. The proposal to spend nine millions on fortifications has 
occasioned less offence than the speech which accompanied it, 
wherein he directed the apprehensions of the country towards 
France exclusively as the source of our danger of attack and inva- 
sion. People speak of it as an indication that our Court and aris- 
tocracy are inclined to renew the policy of 1792, by forming 
another coalition in opposition to France. They say that the in- 
spiration of our policy in arming and fortifying comes from Ber- 
lin and Brussels through the British Court. 

" July 28. — Dined with Mr. P and a party at the restau- 
rant of Philippe. M. Chevalier, one of the company, told me a 
curious story about a recent interview between M. Thouvenel, the 
French Foreign Minister, and Lord Cowley. The latter, after con- 
fessing some perplexity in making the communication, informed 
the former that Lord Palmerston had obtained from some person 
in the secret a copy of the plan of the Emperor for seizing on 
London ! He had also procured from a similar source the infor- 
mation that the Emperor had, entered into an arrangement with 
Cavour, by which France was to secure a further aggrandizement 
of territory. Both stories were received as laughably untrue. 
M. Chevalier says there are chevaliers cVindustrie who manufacture 
these marvellous stories, and sell them to newspapers or to credu- 
lous statesmen. Both the above canards had, he said, been sold to 
Lord Palmerston and by him been transferred to his colleagues of 
the Cabinet. 

" August 2. — In a conversation with M. Rouher, the Minister 
of Commerce, he related to me the incident, mentioned previously 
by M. Chevalier, of Lord Cowley having called on M. Thouvenel, 
the Foreign Minister, to ask for an explanation respecting a secret 
treaty alleged to have been entered into by France and Sardinia, 
by which the latter was to be allowed to annex the whole of the 
Italian States on the condition of ceding to the French Emperor 
another slice of territory. He described in a graphic way the em- 
barrassment of the British envoy in disclosing the delicate object 
of his visit; how, after many shrugs and wry faces, and sundry 
exhortations from the French Minister, he at last revealed the 
secret ; how this was followed by an earnest disavowal, on the 
personal honor of M. Thouvenel, upon which, after many fresh 
protestations of regret and perplexity, Lord Cowley produced from 
his pocket a copy of the Treaty, which he handed to the French 
Minister, who thereupon laughed heartily, and assured him that 
it was not worth the paper on which it was written, and that in 
fact the English Government had been the victim of a very 
clumsy hoax. 

"M. Rouher spoke in indignant terms of the speech lately 



JEt.56.] THE TARIFF. 523 

delivered by Lord Palmerston in the House of Commons when 
introducing the measure for fortifying the naval arsenals, in which 
he founded his scheme entirely upon the danger to be apprehended 
from France. He characterized the policy of our Cabinet as a 
pitiful truckling to the popular passions of the moment, for the 
sole object of securing a majority in Parliament, in disregard of 
the interests of commerce and civilization and the higher duties 
of statesmanship. He spoke at some length and with much elo- 
quence on this subject, and remarked that he regretted there was 
not a tribune in France from which he could speak for half an 
hour in answer to Lord Palmerston. He said that this speech had 
increased the difficulties of the French Government in carrying 
out liberally the terms of the Treaty, for it deprived them of the 
argument that it would ameliorate the moral and political rela- 
tions of the two countries. He denied the truth of Lord Palmer- 
ston's assertion that the French navy had been unduly increased. 
Alluding to the letter which the Emperor had written to Count 
Persigny in consequence of Lord Palmerston's speech, he remarked 
that it had wounded the susceptibilities of the French people, 
who dislike to see "their sovereign treat with so much considera- 
tion, and so much on the footing of equality, a statesman who 
had recently offered so many insults to France. I hear from many 
other quarters that the Emperor's letter has hurt the self-love of 
all classes of the French people. It is a significant fact that it 
has not been published in the Moniteur. 

"August 27. — Called on M. Rouher in the morning and had 
some conversation on the subject of our proposed arrangements 
for completing the French tariff. He mentioned that he had been 
speaking to Lord Clarendon upon the language used by Lord Palm- 
erston in the House of Commons, and had censured the levity with 
which he had for mere momentary objects in the House embit- 
tered the relations of the two countries and endangered their peace. 
He observed that the conduct of Lord Palmerston had added im- 
mensely to the difficulties of the French Government in carrying 
out the details of the Treaty, for it had cut from under their feet 
the political grounds on which they had justified themselves to 
the influential members of the protectionist party, who now 
taunted him with having failed to secure the English alliance by 
the Free-Trade concessions. He said that the Emperor's letter to 
M. Persigny was not intended for publication, but that the Em- 
peror was importuned by the latter to allow it to be given to the 
world. 

" August 31. — Called on Prince Napoleon, who informed me 
he was going shortly on a visit to England, where he would study 
our agriculture, and travel into Scotland as far as Inverness. I 
hoped he would visit Manchester and Liverpool, and make a 



524 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

speech on the Commercial Treaty. He complained of the lan- 
guage of Lord Palmerston in the House towards France, and inti- 
mated that it would be well for the peace of the world that he 
were removed from the political stage, if not from the stage of life. 
He said the great danger to be dreaded from these attacks upon 
France, made by our leading statesmen from political motives, 
was lest the Germans, and particularly Austria, should infer that 
they would be supported in a war with France by England, and 
thus be encouraged to make a rupture with this country. He 
attributed our present hostile attitude towards France to the 
influence exercised at our Court by the royal families of Prussia, 
Belgium, etc. The English Court, he said, in the present equally 
balanced state of parties, exercised a great sway over the rival 
aristocratic candidates for office. 

" September 4l. — Lord Granville called, and I took the opportu- 
nity of commenting on the conduct of the Government during the 
late session of Parliament, particularly with regard to Lord Palm- 
erston's gratuitous attacks on France in his speech on proposing 
the project of fortifications. I showed the enormous superiority 
which we already possessed at sea before the expenditure on coast 
defences was proposed, that we had 84,000 men and boys voted 
for our navy against 30,000 in France ; that our expenditure was 
15,000,000^. and theirs 6,000,000^. 

" September 5. — M. de Persigny (French Ambassador to Lon- 
don) dined with me, and we had a long conversation upon the 
politics of the two countries. I referred to the report that the 
Emperor had ordered eight more frigates blindees to be built, 
which he seemed to admit to be true, and I expressed an opinion 
that it would only lead to our building double as many iron-cased 
line-of-battle ships in England. I added that this could only lead 
to an indefinite expense on both sides, and that unless an end 
could be put to this insane rivalry it would lead to a war. I said 
I blamed the French Government for taking the initiative in these 
matters, which he did not appear able to meet. He agreed that 
it would be necessary to endeavor to bring the two governments 
to an understanding by which some limit could be put to this 
warlike rivalry. He expressed an opinion that it would be left 
to a Tory Government to carry out this policy. He complained 
of the levity with which Lord Palmerston trifled with the peace 
of the two countries ; and he spoke of the difficulties which he 
encountered in his relations with our Government, owing to the 
want of a consistent and reliable policy on the part of the Min- 
istry, who altered their course to suit the caprice of the House of 
Commons from day to day." 

Meanwhile, the fabric of a tariff was slowly rising out of space. 
In September, a storm ruffled the surface of Cobden's diplomacy. 



Ms. 56.] THE TARIFF. 525 

The new rates of duty on iron and other metal wares in the 
French tariff were to come into operation on the 1st of October. 
Cobden had been holding daily conferences with M. Eouher for 
settling the necessary alterations in the tariff, and was at length 
(Sept. 10) able to report that the work was nearly completed. 
Lord Cowley expressed a wish to take instructions from home 
before he signed the convention. In vain Cobden pointed out to 
him the impossibility of revising the French tariff in London 
without the assistance of the French Ministers, and the Ministers 
would certainly not go over the matter again. At that moment, 
moreover, the heads of departments were absent from London, 
and a most embarrassing and dangerous delay would necessarily 
take place in consequence. Lord Cowley did not feel that he 
could give way, and a copy of the tariff was sent home. When 
the tariff reached London, the Foreign Office hesitated to accept 
the figures without reference in detail to the Treasury, the Cus- 
toms, and the Board of Trade. It was true that both the Board 
of Trade and the Customs had sent their representatives to super- 
vise the proceedings in Paris. It was clearly explained to the 
Foreign Office how impossible it would be to revise a French 
tariff in London. The President of the Board of Trade was away 
in his yacht, and nobody knew where to find him. In the mean 
while his department had written to the Foreign Office, deprecat- 
ing as useless, if not mischievous, any attempt to revise the French 
tariff in London, and advising that it should be accepted as it left 
the hands of the Commission in Paris. " The Board of Trade," 
said one of its Presidents, " is merely an opinion-giving depart- 
ment, and our advice is often disregarded, especially when it is 
right." It was disregarded now, and the tariff remained hung up 
in the most stubborn of all the Circumlocution offices. The first 
day of October was rapidly approaching. The French Ministers 
were astonished at a delay which was unintelligible! " I am 
amazed," M. Eouher said to Cobden, " that a country like Eng- 
land should allow a great commercial question to be treated in 
this contemptuous way. Had it been Caraccas or Guayaquil or 
Turkey, I should have understood it. But here is a Treaty of 
Commerce between England and a nation of thirty-six millions 
of people within two hours of its shores — probably the greatest 
event in her commercial annals — and it does not seem to create 
sufficient interest in the Government to induce the President of 
the Board of Trade to remain for a few days at his post, or even 
to leave his address where a despatch will find him." He added 
that he had some reason to believe that perhaps there would be 
no great regret in some quarters, if Cobden did not meet with too 
great success in his negotiations. Success might procure for him 
a degree of influence that might, it was feared, possibly be used 
against the Government. 



526 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

Cobden suggested to M. Eouher that if they could only sign 
such a portion of the tariff as was to come into operation on the 
1st of October, they might at least publish the whole tariff, on 
the ground that the first portion was likely to be the least satis- 
factory to the English manufacturers, and it was unadvisable 
therefore to expose it to hostile criticism for a week or ten days 
before the rest could be published. When this was explained at the 
next meeting 01 the plenipotentiaries, a rather disagreeable scene 
took place. "Lord Cowley," says Cobden, "jumped up from his 
chair, and, seizing his hat, declared with considerable excitement 
that he would leave the room, throw up all responsibility, and 
leave the matter in my hands ; that I had undertaken to act with- 
out his consent, and in opposition to. his instructions, etcetera. 
In vain M. Eouher explained that he had acted on my personal 
assurance, and that what I had said did not bind me as a plenipo- 
tentiary, and still less Lord Cowley. The whole scene ended in 
Lord Cowley refusing to sign the whole of the tariff on metals, 
and so we appended our signatures only to that portion which 
comes into- operation on October 1." This, it should be said here, 
was the only occasion when any difference arose between Cobden 
and the English ambassador. "Do not say a word," he had writ- 
ten to Mr. Bright a few weeks before, " to disparage Lord Cowley. 
He has acted a very manly part, and has done his best to help 
me." 

The continued delay as to the text of the Convention chafed 
Cobden almost beyond endurance. " When the post of plenipo- 
tentiary was conferred on me, without my solicitation," he writes 
in his diary, " I little thought that it would subject me to feelings 
of humiliation. Yet this has been the case during the last week ; 
for I find that I am paraded at meetings of the plenipotentiaries 
with my hands tied, without the power of solving the merest 
question of detail. When I filled the post of commercial traveller 
at the age of twenty, I was intrusted with more discretionary 
power than is now shared by Lord Cowley and myself while fill- 
ing the office of H. M.'s plenipotentiaries. The name might 
more appropriately be changed to that of nullipotentiary. The 
points on which this delay is created by the Foreign Office are 
so trivial and unimportant as almost to defy comprehension. It 
fairly raises the suspicion whether there be not an occult influ- 
ence at work at home, unfavorable to my success, and which 
would not grieve even if I were to fail in my Treaty altogether, 
or to abandon the undertaking in weariness and disgust." 

The suspicion that his labors were not popular with the Cabi- 
net was undoubtedly well founded, but in this particular instance 
Cobden was probably only suffering from that jealous and surly 
spirit which the Foreign Office thinks business-like. Lord Cowley 



Mr. 56.] THE TARIFF. 527 

wrote to him good-naturedly: — "You will not bless the day when 
you made acquaintance with diplomacy. But as you have now 
got entangled in our meshes, you must take us as we are, for 
better, for worse." The truth seems to be that Lord Palmerston, 
who knew little or nothing of the merits of the matter, thought 
in a general way that official form or the national dignity required 
that a certain number of objections should be raised. Mr. Milner 
Gibson was compelled to hurry down to Broadlands, to prove by 
word of mouth to the Prime Minister that they were wasting time 
in mere straw-splitting. The Foreign Office held out upon the 
following point. If an importer were proved to have made a 
declaration of value to the amount of ten per cent under the real 
value, he should be liable to penalties. No, our Government said, 
ten per cent is not margin enough : the importer must not be pun- 
ished unless his underdeclaration should amount to fifteen per 
cent on the real value. In fact, this was only making things a 
little easier for dishonest men. M. Eouher said that he would 
accept the alteration if it were pressed, but that it would disin- 
cline him for the adoption of further ad valorem duties. This 
was explained to Lord Cowley, and after an interchange of tele- 
grams, the alteration was abandoned. 

It was October 12 before the first supplementary convention 
was signed, fixing the duty on work in metals. The second sup- 
plementary convention, embracing the remainder of the French 
tariff, was signed on November 16. On this day the labors of 
the Treaty came to an end. Cobden summed up his grievances 
in the following passage in his journal referring immediately to 
the earlier of the two conventions, but substantially conveying 
his impressions of the performance as a whole : — 

" This convention was ready for signature, so far as the negotia- 
tion here was concerned, on the 18th September, and the delay 
which has taken place is attributable to our Foreign Office, to 
their habitual procrastination, the desire to meddle, and I fear 
also to the willingness on the part of some of the officials in that 
department to find fault with my performance. My position is 
that of a poacher, and their feeling towards me is akin to that of 
gamekeepers towards a trespasser in quest of game. I am afraid, 
too, that the majority of the Cabinet is not very eager for my 
complete success here. The tone of our Court is very hostile to 
the French Emperor, and in the present nearly balanced state of 
political parties the Court has great influence. There is an in- 
stinctive feeling on the part of our aristocratic politicians that 
if the Treaty should prove successful, and result in a largely in- 
creased trade between France and England, it would produce a 
state of feeling which might lead to a mutual limitation of arma- 
ments, and thus cut down the expenditure for our warlike services 



528 LIFE OF COBDEN. [I860. 

on which our aristocratic system flourishes. The first attempt at 
delaying the Treaty, and perhaps detracting from my merit in its 
preparation, was the proposal to revise again the tariff in Eng- 
land ; and when I had proved the absurdity and impossibility of 
doing this, and had induced them to leave it precisely as I had 
sent it home, then the Foreign Office officials fell upon the text of 
the convention, and by insisting on certain alterations produced 
a further delay. The attempt to substitute fifteen for ten per 
cent for the amount of undervaluation which should subject im- 
porters to a fine, and other attempted changes in this part of the 
convention, whilst they caused a further postponement, were cal- 
culated to weaken my influence with the French Minister by re- 
voking an engagement to which I had become a party. These 
points have at last been most unwillingly yielded, after occasion- 
ing me great trouble and annoyance. The clause which I had 
agreed to for regulating the duty on sugar was rejected, though 
it was proposed merely for the convenience of the French Minis- 
ter in controlling his own producers, and could not possibly be 
prejudicial to our interests. The clause also respecting the Visa 
of French Consuls in England was altered at the Foreign Office, 
with no other practical result than to give needless offence to the 
French negotiators, and M. Herbet, one of the Commissioners, 
pronounced it to be very ' bhssant.' Altogether the spirit which 
animates the officials at home is very hostile and mistrustful to 
the French Government ; and it is evident that, whilst this spirit 
lasts, it is quite impossible that any negotiation between the two 
Governments, with a view to limit their respective armaments, 
can be entered on with any chance of success." 

In November Mr. Bright came to Paris to pay his friend a short 
visit. " I cannot allow you to leave Paris," he had written, lf to 
go south to Algiers, or Egypt, or even to Cannes or Nice, without 
trying to have an evening or two with you." The day after his 
arrival they called on Prince Napoleon, who told them that the 
English Government ought to invite the Emperor to bring away 
his troops from Rome. According to Prince Napoleon, England 
could not do the French Government a greater service. On the 
following day they saw the Emperor himself. 

" Nov. 27. — Mr. Bright and I had an audience of the Emperor. 
He asked if I was satisfied with the Treaty, and I replied that, 
with the exception of the article of iron, I did not complain. I 
told him that if iron had been taken last instead of the first item 
in the tariff, it would have been dealt with more boldly. He 
intimated that greater reductions would follow. He expressed to 
Mr. Bright his high sense of the course he had taken in always 
trying to preserve a good understanding between the two coun- 
tries. He again complained (as he had done before to me) that 



Mr, 56.] THE TARIFF. 529 

his intentions towards England were misrepresented by certain 
people. He laughed at the reports that he was preparing some 
boats for the invasion of England, when it turned out they were 
intended to carry coals from the interior to Brest. He alluded to 
the conduct of an English lady, and said he had a letter written 

by her to M , saying, ' Will nobody be found to shoot that 

rascal ? ' meaning the Emperor. He alluded to the affairs of Italy, 
and seemed to be especially puzzled what to do with the Pope. 

In reference to Venetia, he said he had suggested to Mr. that 

a pamphlet should be written recommending that Austria should 
sell the independence of that Italian province for a sum of money. 
In the course of our conversation he mentioned as a secret that 
he had bought the Chronicle, London newspaper, and he offered 
to put it into Bright's and my hands, to be under our control. 1 I 
parried this proposal by saying that such arrangements could never 
be kept secret, and I rather surprised him by saying that I had 
heard some months since of his having bought that newspaper." 

This interview had been sought by the Emperor's visitors from 
no idle motives. Most of the hour was taken up with the subject 
of passports. The two Englishmen had come there to bring 
arguments to bear which should induce the Emperor to abolish 
this troublesome restraint on the intercourse of nations. It 
naturally followed as a part of the policy on which France had 
entered in the Treaty ; and the Emperor felt that the persuasion 
of his visitors could not be logically resisted. This proved to be 
another instance of the value of the informal diplomacy of rea- 
sonable and enlightened men. Mr. Bright was struck by the great 
confidence which Napoleon seemed to feel in Cobden, and by the 
degree in which his mind was open to argument. After Mr. Bright 
returned to England, Cobden persevered with the good work. 

" December 6. — Dined at M. Chevalier's. Met Count de Per- 
signy, who has just returned from the Embassy to England and 
entered on the duties of Home Minister. We spoke upon the 
subject of passports. I mentioned to him the conversation I had 
had with the Emperor when Mr. Bright and I had an audience 
with him. He (Count P.) seemed inclined to put an end to the 
present system of passports between France and England, and to 
substitute a mere visiting card, which should receive the stamp 
from the consular agent at the port of embarkation, and which 
should serve as a ticket of admission into France. Although ad- 
mitting that this would be an improvement on the present system, 
I advised him to make a clean sweep of all travelling permits, and 
to content himself with a police surveillance when a person be- 
came settled ; I said that a billet de sejour might be required to 

1 Mr. Bright does not recollect that the Emperor said he had bought the Chron- 
icle, but that he had secured an influence in it or over it. 

34 



530 LIFE OF COBDEN. [I860. 

be taken out by all Englishmen who took up their abode in any 
part of France." 

Two days later Cobden wrote a letter to Persigny, now become 
Minister of the Interior, urging many reasons why he ought to 
abolish passports without substituting any other precaution in 
their place. The abolition of passports with regard to British 
subjects was passed a week later (December 16). Some of the 
English newspapers chose to say that the change had been made 
at the intercession of the Empress, who was delighted at the 
manner in which she had been treated in England. " The pass- 
port reform," Cobden wrote to Mr. Bright, " is capital. To-day, 
Chevalier writes to say that the French postmaster is prepared 
to increase the weight of letters, and I am writing by this post 
to Eowland Hill to say that he has only to make the pro- 
posal. Thus in the same year we have the tariff, abolition of 
passports, and a postal facility. The question arises naturally, 
why should not our Foreign Office accomplish some good of this 
kind ? I do not want to throw any blame on Lord Cowley, but 
can it be doubted that much more of the same kind might be done 
if there was a will ? " 

This letter to Persigny was Cobden's last act before leaving 
Paris. On the 9th of December, accompanied by his wife and 
eldest daughter, he left Paris on his way to Algiers. He had 
never quite shaken off the effects of the illness which had attacked 
him in the previous winter. He used to say of himself that he 
was wholly the creature of atmosphere and temperature. His 
throat was constantly troublesome, and when cold and damp 
weather came, his hoarseness returned with growing severity. He 
had a nervous dread of the London fog, from which he had suf- 
fered the autumn before, and from which he was suffering even 
now, and he had an irresistible craving for the sunshine of the 
warm south. His doctor warned him that a single speech to a 
large audience might destroy his voice forever ; and he was beset 
with invitations to public meetings and congratulatory banquets. 
We cannot wonder at his eagerness for rest. " When I began 
last winter," lie wrote to a friend, <( as a volunteer in the corps &f 
diplomacy, I little dreamed what a year's work I was preparing 
for myself. Certainly mine has not been an idle life, but I never 
had so tough a task in hand as that which I have just finished. 
And much as my heart was in the work, I feel intensely satisfied 
that it is at an end. Nor do I think, if I must confess so much, 
that I could again go through the ordeal. It would not be easy 
to explain to you what it has been, but if I should again have the 
pleasure of toasting my knees by your fire, I could explain it in a 
few sittings." 1 

1 To William Hargreaves. Nov. 16, 1860. 



Mt. 56.] THE TARIFF. 531 

He remained in Algiers until the following May. While he 
was absent, his friends began to talk about some public recognition 
of his services by the Government. The Tariff had been received 
with almost universal approval in the various centres of English 
industry. Manchester, after a day or two of hesitation, pronounced 
at last a decided verdict. In spite of some difficulty about drills, 
the linen-men of Belfast were well pleased. The slate people and 
the leather people frankly declared that the new duties were all 
that they could desire. Bradford and Leeds, Nottingham and 
Leicester, rose to enthusiasm. The London newspapers, it is true, 
were nearly all silent, but the great merchants and manufacturers 
all over the country were thoroughly awake to the volume of 
wealth which the Treaty would pour into Great Britain. They 
asked one another whether, while grants of money were always 
lavished on men who achieved successes in war, the Government 
could leave unnoticed a man who had just achieved so vast a 
success in the field of industry and peace. As a matter of fact, 
the authorities of the Foreign Office, it is said, did not even pass 
the account of the mere expenses of the Commission, a sum of 
little more than 3000^. in all, without much ungracious demur. 
There was a rumor that a vote of money to Cobden would be sub- 
mitted to the House, but it is believed that the Government 
declined the suggestion. It was customary, as it seemed, to make 
presents of money to military men for doing their duty, but there 
was no precedent for offering such a reward to volunteer diplo- 
matists. Cobden's friends probably answered that there was no 
precedent for his disinterested labor. What his own mind was 
upon this subject is seen in the following letter to Mr. Bright : — 

"Algiers, 4 Feb., 1861. 

" If there be the slightest whisper in any quarter of proposing 
to vote me any money for the work I did in Paris, I rely on your 
putting a stop to it. Whether such an idea ever occurred to a 
member of the ^Government I should doubt. But kind and offi- 
cious friends have suggested it. I repeat, from whatever quarter 
it may be spoken of, I rely on your representing my feelings and 
determination by preventing its being publicly advocated, or, if so, 
by declining it in my name. It is bad enough to have neglected 
one's affairs till I am obliged to see something of this sort done 
privately for my family. But the two processes would be 
intolerable. 

" Besides, if there were no other motive, I do not wish to allow 
the Government to be my paymaster, for a totally different reason. 
The conduct of the head of the Government during my negotia- 
tions was so outrageously inconsistent, so insulting to myself in 
the position in which I was placed, so calculated to impede the 



532 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

work I had in hand, and to render it almost impossible for the 
French Government to fulfil its intentions, that, as I told Lord 
Cowley, if my heart had not been in my work, I should have 
thrown up my powers and gone home. I allude, of course, to 
Lord Palmerston's speech on the fortification scheme, and to his 
still worse one, if possible, just before the close of Parliament. If 
I had done justice to myself, I should have put on public record 
in a formal despatch my opinion of this conduct, which threw 
ridicule and mockery on my whole proceedings. But I was re- 
strained solely by a regard for the cause in which I was engaged. 
I was afraid that the real motive was to prevent my completing 
the work, and was cautious therefore not to give any good ground 
for quarrelling with me and recalling me. 

" To form a fair judgment of this reckless levity and utter want 
of dignity or decency on the part of the Prime Minister, just turn 
to the volumes of the Life of the first Lord Auckland, who was 
sent by Pitt to negotiate the Commercial Treaty with Prance in 
1786. I have not seen the book, but I can tell you what you will 
not find in its pages : you will not read that in the midst of those 
negotiations Pitt rose in the House and declared that he appre- 
hended danger of a sudden and unprovoked attack on our shores 
by the French king ; that (whilst history told us that we had 
84,000 men voted for our navy to the 31,000 in France, and whilst 
we had 150,000 riflemen assembled for drill) he, Mr. Pitt, pursued 
the eccentric course of proposing that the nation should spend ten 
millions on fortifications, and that he accompanied this with 
speeches in the House in which he imputed treacherous and un- 
provoked designs upon us on the part of the monarch with whom 
his own plenipotentiary was then negotiating a treaty of com- 
merce in Paris. On the contrary, you will find Pitt consistently 
defending, in all its breadth and moral bearings, his peaceful 
policy, and it is the most enduring title to fame that he left in all 
his public career. * 

1 Cobden Avas justified in the contrast on which he insisted between Pitt's rela- 
tions with Eden, and Lord Palmerston's treatment under similar circumstances. 
The Auckland Correspondence (i. 86-122) shows that Pitt entered into the details 
of the project which he had initiated, with the liveliest zeal and interest. Oddly 
enough, in the course of the negotiations, suspicions arose in England of the sin- 
cerity of the French Government on the same grounds as were discovered in 1860 — 
the alleged increase of the French navy, and a royal visit to Cherbourg, which was 
supposed to mean mischief to Portsmouth and Plymouth. Eden, however, like 
Cobden, insisted that at Versailles there was every appearance of a belief that Great 
Britain and France ought to unite in some solid plan of permanent peace — though 
Eden, unlike Cobden, laid down the general proposition that "it is difficult to feel 
confident in the sincerity of any foreign court." The English papers embarrassed 
the Government by their demand for the destruction of Cherbourg, but Pitt kept a 
cool head, along with his firm hand, in the difficult negotiations which followed the 
Commercial Treaty. 

In defending the Treaty, Pitt made the declaration which caused him to be 



Mr. 56.] THE TARIFF. 533 

"Yet he had far stronger grounds for suspecting the French 
king of hostile designs, or of feeling resentment towards him, for 
we had only three years previously closed a disastrous war with 
our American colonies, whose successful revolt was greatly the 
result of the unwarrantable assistance rendered to them by the 
French Government. On the other hand, Palmerston had not 
one hostile act towards us to allege against the sovereign with 
whom I was, with his sanction, engaged in negotiating the Treaty. 
The whole affair is so shockingly gross and offensive to serious 
minds, that, unless we are to degenerate to a nation of political 
mountebanks, it cannot be much longer tolerated that we are to be 
governed and represented by such persons." 

The Government proposed no vote of money, but they did not 
intend to leave the negotiator of the Treaty without honorable 
recognition. While he was in Algiers, Cobden received the fol- 
lowing letter from the Prime Minister : — 

" 94, Piccadilly, 26 March, 1861. 

" My dear Mr. Cobden, — The Queen being desirous of mark- 
ing the sense she entertains of the public service rendered by you 
during the long and laborious negotiations in which you were 
engaged on the subject of the Commercial Treaty with France, 
her Majesty has authorized me to offer to you either to be created 
a Baronet, or to be made a Privy Councillor, whichever of the two 
would be most agreeable to you. 

" I am aware that you might not perhaps attach any great 
intrinsic value to distinctions of this kind, but as an acknowledg- 
ment of public services they would not fail to be appreciated. 
"My dear Mr. Cobden, yours sincerely, 

" Palmerston. 

" I hope your health has derived all the benefit you desired 
from the milder winter climate of Algeria. You have at all events 
escaped the severest English winter upon record." 

To this Cobden made the reply that might have been, and 
probably was, anticipated : — 

"Algiers, lBth April, 1861. 

"My dear Lord Palmerston, — I beg to acknowledge the 
receipt of your letter of the 26th March, which reached me yester- 
day only, on my return after an absence of ten days from Algiers. 

taunted with his degeneracy from the spirit of Chatham : "I shall not hesitate to 
contend against the too frequently expressed opinion that France is, and must be, 
the unalterable enemy of England. My mind revolts from this position as mon- 
strous and impossible. To suppose that any nation carhbe unalterably the enemy 
of another is weak and childish." Fox, unluckily for the wholeness of his reputa- 
tion, insisted on imputing sinister motives to France in the Treaty negotiations. 



534 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

Whilst entertaining the same sentiment of gratitude towards the 
Queen which I could have felt if I had accepted the offer you 
have been so good as to make me in her name, I must beg per- 
mission most respectfully to deny myself the honor which her 
Majesty has graciously proposed to confer on me. An indisposi- 
tion to accept a title being in my case rather an affair of feeling 
than of reason, I will not dwell further on the subject. 

" With respect, however, to the particular occasion for which it 
is proposed to confer on me this distinction, I may say that it 
would not be agreeable to me to accept a recompense in any form 
for my recent labors in Paris. The only reward I desire is to live 
to witness an improvement in the relations of the two great 
neighboring nations which have been brought into more intimate 
connection by the Treaty of Commerce. 

" I remain, my dear Lord Palmerston, 

"Yours sincerely, 

" E. Cobden. 

" In reply to your kind inquiry, I may say that my health has 
derived much benefit from the beautiful summer weather which I 
have had the good fortune to experience here. The winter has 
been exceptionally fine with us, whilst it seems to have been 
unusually severe in England." 

No other course could have been reconcilable with Cobden's 
pure and simple type of citizenship. To him the service was its 
own reward. The whole system of decoration was alien to the 
antique and homely spirit of his patriotism. He never used great 
words about such things, nor spoke bitterly of those who coveted 
and prized them. On one occasion Mr. Gladstone, not long after 
the conclusion of the Treaty, invited him to one of his official 
state dinners. "To tell you the truth," Cobden replied, "I have 
never had the courage to get a court costume ; and as I do not 
like being singular by coming in ordinary dress, I will beg you to 
excuse me." There were no heroics about him in encountering 
these trifling symbols of a social ordering with which he did not 
sympathize. He merely practised, almost without claiming it, 
the right of living his own plain life, and satisfying his own ideals 
of civic self-respect. 



JEr.56.] THE POLICY OF THE COMMERCIAL TREATY. 535 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE POLICY OP THE COMMERCIAL TREATY. 

It will be convenient to insert here a few short remarks on 
the general character of the work that Cobclen had now accom- 
plished. We shall find that under a different form it must still 
be regarded as an extension of the same principles which had in- 
spired his first great effort. It was one more move in the direction 
-of free exchange. By many prominent men, indeed, at the time, 
and by many more afterwards, the Treaty was regarded as an 
infraction of sound economic principles. Some came to this 
opinion from lack of accuracy, but more from a failure in copious- 
ness of thought. One or two of those who had been with Cob- 
den in the van of the assault on the Corn Laws, now looked 
askance on a transaction which savored of the fallacy of recipro- 
city. Those rigid adherents of economics who insist, in Mill's 
phrase, on treating their science as if it were a thing not to guide 
our judgment, but to stand in its place, denounced the doctrine 
of treaties as a new-fangled heresy. Even the old Protectionists 
professed a virtuous alarm at an innovation on the principles of 
Free Trade. 

The discussion of 1860 did little more than reproduce a dis- 
cussion that had taken place seventeen years before. When Sir 
Robert Peel entered office, he found four sets of negotiations 
pending for commercial treaties, between England and France, 
Portugal, Spain, and Brazil. Those with France were obviously 
the most important. Affairs in Syria had interrupted them, but 
Peel resumed the negotiations. He was most anxious for a Tariff 
Treaty. " I should not," he said, as Pitt had said before him, and 
as Cobden and Mr. Gladstone said after him, " estimate the ad- 
vantage of an extended commercial intercourse with France merely 
in respect to the amount of pecuniary gain ; but I value that 
intercourse on account of the effect it is calculated to produce in 
promoting the feelings of amity and good-will between two great 
nations. I should regard that mutual intercourse in commercial 
affairs as giving an additional security for the permanent main- 
tenance of peace." 1 Unfortunately, the negotiations fell through. 
Guizot said that he could not pass any such measure through the 
Chambers. Nor was there better success in other quarters. 

In 1843, Mr. J. L. Ricardo had introduced a resolution in the 

i April 25, 1843. 



536 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

House of Commons, declaring the inexpediency of postponing 
remissions of duty with a view of making such remissions a basis 
of commercial negotiations. This was a reply from the pure 
economic party to Peel's statement already quoted (see above, p. 
471), that lie did not reduce the wine duties because he hoped to 
make them the instruments of treaties with foreign countries. 
Eicardo prefaced his resolution by a speech, which was very able, 
but which pressed for Free Trade without delay, restriction, or 
qualification. The only process to which they need resort against 
hostile tariffs was to open the ports. Mr. Gladstone answered 
Eicardo by the same arguments that were afterwards used to de- 
fend his own policy in 1860. Mr. Disraeli, not at all disclaiming 
Free Trade as a general policy, supported Mr. Gladstone against 
the ultra-Free-Traders in a speech remarkable to this day for its 
large and comprehensive survey of the whole field of our com- 
merce, and for its discernment of the channels in which it would 
expand. On the immediate question, Mr. Disraeli gave a definite 
opinion in support of the Minister. " In forming connections 
with the states of Europe," he said, " it was obvious that we could 
only proceed by negotiations. Diplomacy stepped in to weigh 
and adjust contending interests, to obtain mutual advantages, and 
ascertain reciprocal equivalents. Our commerce with Europe 
could only be maintained and extended by treaties." 1 

Cobden supported Eicardo's motion, not on the rather abstract 
grounds of the mover and others, but because it was a way of 
preventing a Government " which was the creature of monopoly, 
from meddling with any of our commercial ' arrangements." The 
envoy to Brazil, he said, had been sent out to obtain the best 
terms for the West Indian sugar monopolists, and he quoted the 
description by a Brazilian senator, of the people of Great Britain 
as the slaves of a corn, sugar, coffee, and timber oligarchy. 

Was it fit, Cobden asked, that the executive government should 
be allowed to go all over the world to seek for impediments to 
Free Trade abroad, in order to excuse them in resisting the re- 
moval of impediments at home ? It might be very well to talk 
of a commercial treaty with Portugal, but abolish the monopolies 
of sugar, corn, and coffee, and the vast continents of North and 
South America would be opened to the manufactures of Great 
Britain. Characteristically enough, he kept close to the imme- 
diate and particular bearings of the discussion, and nothing was 
said by him in 1843 that was inconsistent with his position in 
1860. Eicardo, again, in 1844 brought forward a resolution to 
the effect that our commercial intercourse with foreign nations 
would be best promoted by regulating our own customs duties as 

1 Feb. 14, 1843. "Sign the treaty of commerce with France," Mr. Disraeli 
cried, " that will give present relief." 



.Et.56.] THE POLICY OF THE COMMERCIAL TREATY. 537 

might be best suited to our own interests, without reference to the 
amount of duties which foreign powers might think expedient to 
levy on British goods. The discussion was very meagre, and the 
House was counted ont. 

To return to the Treaty of 1860. Cobden, unable to be present 
to defend his measure in the House of Commons, took up the 
points of the case against it in a letter to Mr. Bright : — 

" I observe that some of the recent converts to Free Trade, who 
gave you and me so much trouble to convert them, are concerned 
at our doing anything so unsound as to enter into a Commercial 
Treaty. I will undertake that there -is not a syllable on our side 
of the Treaty that is inconsistent with the- soundest principles of 
Free Trade. We do not propose to reduce a duty which, on its 
own merits, ought not to have been dealt with long ago. We 
give no concessions to France which do not apply to all other 
nations. We leave ourselves free to lay on any amount of inter- 
nal duties, and to put on an equal tax on foreign articles of the 
same kind at the Custom House. It is true we bind ourselves, 
for ten years, not otherwise to raise such of our customs as affect 
the French trade, or put on fresh ones ; and this, I think, no true 
Free Trader will regret. 

" And here I may suggest, that if you observe the members on 
the Opposition side averse to parting with the power of putting 
on higher customs duties on these articles of French origin, it 
may be well to read them a lesson on the impossibility of their 
being able to lay any further burdens on commerce in future, and 
to remind them that, if they sanction higher expenditure, they 
must expect to pay it in a direct income tax. Public opinion, 
without any French Treaty, is daily tending to this result. 

" There being no objection on the ground of principle, there 
are, and will be, many specious arguments resorted to by those 
who really at heart have no sympathy for a cordial union between 
the two nations, for defeating or marring the projected Treaty. 
Of course these fallacies you will easily deal with. I observe 
they often answer themselves. For instance, in the same breath, 
we are told that we have emptied our budget and given every- 
thing to France already, and then that we are going now to give 
everything and receive nothing. Then we are told that it is very 
wrong to reduce the duties on French wines, because France is 
going to lower the duties on British iron ; and in the same breath 
are reproached for including Spain and Portugal in our ' conces- 
sions,' without obtaining anything in return ! I am really half 
inclined to share your suspicions that there are influences at 
work, hostile to any policy which shall put an end to the present 
state of armed hostility and suspicion between France and Eng- 
land. God forgive me if I do any body of men the injustice of 



538 LIFE OP COBDEN. [1860. 

I 
attributing to them wrongfully such an infernal policy. It is, per- 
haps, hardly consciously that anybody would pursue such a course. 

"But surely, if people wished to see the relations of the two 
countries improved, they would never attempt to impede the only 
sure means of attaining that end by such frivolous objections. 
These people seem to think that Free Trade in France can be 
carried by a logical, orderly, methodical process, without resorting 
to stratagem, or anything like an indirect proceeding. They 
forget the political plots and contrivances, and the fearful ad- 
juncts of starvation, which were necessary for carrying similar 
measures in England. They forget how Free Trade was wrested 
from the reluctant majorities of both our Houses of Parliament. 
Surely Louis Napoleon has as good a right, and may plead as 
strong motives of duty, for cheating (if I may use the word) the 
majorities of his Senate into an honest policy, as Peel had in 
dealing with the House of Lords. The Emperor of the French 
was elected by the whole people, not only to administer their 
laws, but to legislate for them. They do not expect, as we do in 
England, to initiate reforms. They look for amelioration from 
above. When speaking with the Emperor, he observed to me 
that the protected interests were organized, and the general public 
was not ; and, therefore, the contest was as unequal as between 
a disciplined regiment and a mob. The answer was obvious : 
'Your Majesty is the organization of the masses.' And I am 
earnestly of opinion that he is now acting under this impulse and 
conviction." ' 

The direct effects of the Treaty upon the exchange of products 
between England and France have been too palpable to be denied. 
In 1858 the total exports from England to France amounted to 
no more than nine million pounds, and the imports from France 
to thirteen millions. Nineteen years later, in 1877, the British 
exports and re-exports had risen from nine to twenty-five million 
pounds, and the imports from France to forty-five millions. 

The indirect effects of the Treaty were less plainly visible, but 
they cannot be left out of account if we seek to view the Treaty 
policy as a whole. England cleared her tariff of protection, and 
reduced the duties which were retained for purposes of revenue 
on the two French staples of wine and brandy. France, on her 
part, replaced prohibition by a system of moderate duties. If 
this had been all, it might have been fair to talk about reciprocity, 
though even then, when it is a reciprocity in lowering and not in 
raising duties, the word ceases altogether to be a term of reproach. 
But the matter did not end here. The Treaty with France was 
not like the famous Methuen Treaty with Portugal (1703), an 
exclusive bargain, to the specified disadvantage of a nation out- 
side of the compact. In 1703 we bound ourselves to keep our 



Ms. 56.] THE POLICY OF THE COMMERCIAL TREATY. 539 

duties on French wines one third higher than the duty on the 
wines of Portugal. This was the type of treaty which Adam 
Smith had in his mind when he wrote his chapter on the subject. 
Pitt's Treaty with Prance (1786) was of a different and better 
kind; and his motive in making it was not diplomatic or political, 
as had been the case in the old-fashioned treaties of commerce, 
but truly economical and social. He wished to legalize the com- 
merce which was carried on illegally, and to an immense extent, 
by smuggling, always the spontaneous substitute for free trade ; 
and he boldly accepted, moreover, the seeming paradox that re- 
duction of duties may lead to increase of revenue. 1 Neither 
party stipulated for any peculiar advantages. Still, the benefits 
of the Treaty were confined to the two nations who made it. In 
1860 England lowered her duties, not only in favor of French pro- 
ducts, but in favor of the same products from all other countries. 
The reforms which France and England now made in favor of one 
another, in the case of England actually were, and in the case of 
France were to be, extended to other nations as well. This was 
not reciprocity of monopoly, but reciprocity of freedom, or partial 
freedom. England had given up the system of differential duties, 
and France knew that the products of every other country would 
receive at the English ports exactly the same measure and treat- 
ment as her own. France, on the other hand, openly intended 
to take her Treaty with England as a model for Treaties with 
the rest of Europe, and to concede by Treaty with as many Gov- 
ernments as might wish, a tariff just as favorable as that which 
had been arranged with England. As a matter of fact, within 
five years after the negotiations of 1860, France had made Treaties 
with Belgium, the Zollverein, Italy, Sweden and Norway, Swit- 
zerland, and Austria. 

In these, and in the treaty made afterwards by England with 
Austria, Sir Louis Mallet reminded its opponents in later years, 
that each of them had a double operation. Not only does each 
treaty open the market of another country to foreign industry ; 
it immediately affects the markets that are already opened. For 
every recent treaty recognized the " most favored nation " princi- 
ple, the sheet-anchor of Free Trade, as it has been called. By 
means of this principle, each new point gained in any one negoti- 
ation becomes a part of the common commercial system of the 
European confederation. "By means of this network," it has 
been excellently said by a distinguished member of the English 
diplomatic service, " of which few Englishmen seem to be aware, 

1 "Only 600,000 gallons of French brandy were legally imported in a year, 
while no less than 4,000,000 of gallons were believed to be every year imported 
into England. And since there was a total prohibition of French cambrics, every 
yard of them sold in England must have come in by illicit means." — Lord Stan- 
hope's Life of Pitt, i. 316, 317- 



540 LIFE OF COBDEN. [I860. 

while fewer still know to whom they owe it, all the great trad- 
ing and industrial communities of Europe, i. e. England, France, 
Holland, Belgium, the Zollverein (1870), Austria, and Italy, con- 
stitute a compact international body, from which the principle of 
monopoly and exclusive privilege has once for all been eliminated, 
and not one member of which can take off a single duty without 
all the other members at once partaking in the increased trading 
facilities thereby created. By the self-registering action of the 
most favored nation clause, common to this network of treaties, 
the tariff level of the whole body is being continually lowered, 
and the road being paved towards the final embodiment of the 
Free Trade principle in the international engagement to abolish 
all duties other than those levied for revenue purposes." 

In face of unquestioned facts of this kind, nothing can be less 
statesmanlike than to deny that the treaties since 1860 have 
helped forward the great process of liberating the exchange of 
the products of their industry among the nations of the world. 
It is amazing to find able men so overmastered by a mistaken 
conception of what it is that economic generalization can do for 
us, as to believe that they nullify the substantial service thus ren- 
dered by commercial treaties of Cobden's type to the beneficent 
end of international co-operation, by the mere utterance of some for- 
mula of economic incantation. If the practical effect of the com- 
mercial treaties after 1860, as conceived and inspired by Cobden, 
has been, without any drawback worth considering, to lead Europe 
by a considerable stride towards the end proposed by the parti- 
sans of Free Trade, then it . is absurd to quarrel with the treaties 
because they do not sound in tune with the verbal jingle of an 
abstract dogma. It is beside the mark to meet the advantages 
gained by the international action of. commercial treaties by 
the formula, "Take care of your imports, and the exports will 
take care of themselves." The decisive consideration is that we 
can only procure imports from other countries on the cheapest 
possible terms, on condition that producers in those countries 
are able to receive our exports on the cheapest possible terms. 
Foreign producers can only do this, on condition that their gov- 
ernments can be induced to lower hostile tariffs ; and foreign 
governments are only able, or choose to believe that they are 
only able, to lower tariffs in face of the strength of the protected 
interests, by means of a commercial treaty. The effect of a chain 
of such treaties — and the chain is automatically linked together 
by the favored nation clause — is to lower duties all round, and 
lowering duties all round is the essential and indispensable con- 
dition of each country procuring for itself on the lowest possible 
terms imports from all other countries. 

It is an economic error to confine our view to the imports or 



Mr. 56.] THE POLICY OF THE COMMERCIAL TREATY. 541 

exports of our own country. In the case of England, these are 
intimately connected with, and dependent upon, the great cir- 
culating system of the whole world's trade. Nobody has fully 
grasped the bearings of Free Trade, who does not realize what the 
international aspect of every commercial transaction amounts to ; 
how the conditions of production and exchange in any one coun- 
try affect, both actually and potentially, the corresponding condi- 
tions- in every other country. It is not Free Trade between any 
two countries that is the true aim ; but to remove obstacles in the 
way of the stream of freely exchanging commodities, that ought, 
like the Oceanus of primitive geography, to encircle the whole 
habitable world. In this circulating system every tariff is an 
obstruction, and the free circulation of commodities is in the long 
run as much impeded by an obstruction at one frontier as at 
another. 1 This is one answer to an idea which has been lately 
broached among us, under stress of the temporary reaction against 
Free Trade. It has been suggested that, though we cannot restore 
Protection in its old simplicity, yet we might establish a sort of 
National Imperial Customs Union among the English dominions. 
The territory over which the flag of Great Britain waves is so 
enormous, and so varied in productive conditions, that we could 
well afford, it is urged, to shut ourselves within our own walls, 
developing our own resources, and consolidating a strong national 
sentiment, until the nations who are now fighting us with pro- 
tective tariffs come round to a better mind. The answer to this 
is that the removal of the restriction on the circulation to a more 
distant point would not affect the vital fact that the circulation 
would still be restricted and interrupted. To induce our colonies 
and dependencies to admit our goods free, would of course be so 
much gained ; just as the freedom of interior or domestic com- 
merce, which was one of the chief causes of the early prosperity 
of Great Britain, was by so much a gain over the French system, 
which cut off province from province by customs barriers during 
the same period. But freedom of internal commerce, whether 
within an island or over a wide empire, is still not the same thing 
as universal freedom of exchange. An interruption, at whatever 
point in the great currents of exchange, must always remain an 
interruption and a disadvantage. England is especially interested 
in any transaction that tends to develop trade between any nations 
whatever. We derive benefit from it in one way or another. The 
mother country has no interest in going into a Customs Union 
with her colonies, with the idea of giving them any advantage or 
supposed advantage in trading with her over foreign countries. 

1 This is worked out with vigor and acnteness in the admirable pamphlet pub- 
lished by the Cobden Club in 1870, entitled, Commercial Treaties : Free Trade and 
Internationalism. Four Letters by a Disciple of Richard Cobden. 



542 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1850.. 

It is not enough, therefore, to remove our own protective duties, 
though Peel may have been right under the circumstances of the 
time in saying that the best way of fighting a hostile tariff is by 
reforming your own. It is the business of the economic states- 
man to watch for opportunities of inducing other nations to mod- 
ify duties on imports ; because the release of the consumers of 
other nations is not only a stimulus to your own production for 
exportation, but has an effect in the supply of the imports which 
you declare to be the real object of your solicitude. 

This was the conception at the bottom of the Commercial Treaty 
of 1860. " A treaty with France," said Mr. Gladstone, " is even 
in itself a measure of no small consequence ; but that which gives 
to a measure of that kind its highest value is its tendency to pro- 
duce beneficial imitation in other quarters. It is the fact that, in 
concluding that Treaty, we did not give to one a privilege which 
we withheld from another, but that our Treaty with France was, 
in fact, a treaty with the world, and wide are the consequences 
which engagements of that kind carry in their train." 



CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE, 1859-60 — PARIS — RETURN 
TO ENGLAND. 

The business of the Treaty did not prevent Cobden from keeping 
up his usual copious correspondence. Much of it, as might be 
expected, had to do with his work in Paris ; but he kept a keen 
eye upon what was going on elsewhere, and no effort that pointed 
in the right direction escaped him. Some extracts from the cor- 
respondence of this period will still be found interesting, both 
because they illustrate the character of the writer, and because 
they contain ideas on questions which even now are far from 
having run their full course. 

(1.) To Mr. Bright. 

On December 1, 1859, Mr. Bright made a speech at Liverpool, upon the 
invitation of the Financial Reform Association of that city. In this speech 
he unfolded a plan, which, as has been truly said of it, involved a complete 
financial revolution. The main features of the proposals were, that the in- 
come tax, the assessed taxes (except the house-tax), the tax on marine and 
fire insurances, and the excise on paper, should be repealed ; all duties in 
the tariff should be abolished, save those on wine, spirits, and tobacco ; and, 
to replace the deficiency thus created, there should be a tax of eight shillings 
on every hundred pounds of fixed income. 



JEt. 55.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 543 

Dec. 16, 1859. — "I have been much pleased with the perusal of 
your masterly statement at Liverpool, every word of which I have 
read. After all, I hardly know that the Liverpool men could do 
a better service than in preaching the abstract doctrine of direct 
taxation. People are attracted by the advocacy of a principle, to 
which alone we can feel any strong and lasting devotion. The 
threat of direct taxes held over our aristocracy, may perhaps do a 
little to restrain their proneness to Government extravagance ; 
and it will help an honest Chancellor of the Exchequer to move 
forward in the path of commercial reform. There is an apparent 
tendency in your speeches to advocate the interest of the working 
class as apart from the upper classes. Now, I am sorry to say 
that, whenever the case is so posed, there is a tendency in the 
middle class to range themselves with those above them, to resist 
a common danger. Your witticism of the middle class being 
invited to be the squire of the class above has been realized. 
Therefore, I have always studiously abstained from using the 
words ' working class,' as apart from the middle class, in discuss- 
ing the question of taxation. For you see how eagerly your 
opponents parade the poor widow of 1001. a year. I cannot sepa- 
rate the interest of the small shopkeeper and the laborer, or the 
manufacturer and his operatives, in the question of taxation. In- 
deed, ultimately, God has made all our interests in the matter one 
and indivisible. I do not believe there is a hairsbreadth of differ- 
ence between us, but you seem to take the working class some- 
times too exclusively under your protection. They are quite 
powerless as opposed to the middle and upper classes, which is a 
good reason why they should not be allowed to be made to appear 
to be in antagonism to both. 

" There is another point on which we should not differ in our 
cool moments, but on which you are sometimes carried away in 
the excitement of a speech beyond me. I mean where you seem 
to assume that a wiser policy in taxation or other matters will 
necessarily follow from a democratic reform. I am always willing 
to take my chance of the consequences of such a change. If the 
'majority in a democracy injure me and themselves at the same 
time by unsound legislation, I have at least the consolation of 
knowing that they, are honest in their errors, and that a convic- 
tion of their mistake will for their own sakes lead to a change. 
It is far different where you are wronged by a self-interested 
minority. But I do not feel so confident as yourself that a great 
extension of the franchise would necessarily lead to a wiser sys- 
tem of taxation. On this subject I got a letter lately from 
Senator Mason, of Virginia, in which he says, speaking of direct 
taxation, ' Our people are not yet philosophical enough to know 
that it is safer to feel the tax when you pay it, than to pay it 



544 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1859. 

without feeling it.' I am afraid that this rather pithy remark 
would apply to all other people at present. I have done with 
my dissentient remarks, which after all would not lead me into 
an opposite lobby to yourself, if we had five minutes' discussion 
together." 

(2.) To Mr. Bright. 
Considerations on Mr. Bright's general course and policy. 

"Dec. 29, 1859. — You will be speaking at Birmingham again 
soon. It is hard to tell what to say. If you are intense on 
Eeform, you will have a hearty response from the meeting, and 
little beyond it. If you are cooler than your wont, you will dis- 
appoint your hearers. Were I in your place, I should not dwell 
too much on the Eeform topic. But then, what else can you 
talk about ? I should like to see you turn the tables on those 
who have wasted another autumn on another bubble cry. But 
perhaps people are not yet sufficiently out of breath with the cry 
to listen to you. I observe the Times, having led the pack all 
through the phantom chase, is now turning round, and saying 
that it was not from fear of the French that we were called on to 
arm. And this line is taken by its followers. I have always ob- 
served that, as the time for the meeting of Parliament approaches, 
the newspapers put on a more decent regard for propriety and 
consistency. They feel that a power of refutation and exposure 
is at hand when the House is in Session. This last autumn's 
escapade of the good British public, calling its youth to arm 
against an imaginary foe, after having seen twenty-six millions 
voted for its protection, is one of the most discouraging and 
humiliating spectacles I have witnessed. The effect it has on 
me is to produce a feeling of indifference. To be too much in 
earnest in the cause of common sense, with the liability to see 
one's countrymen running mad every year or two after any 
visionary programme launched by the anonymous writers of the 
Times, is only calculated to injure one's digestion, and perhaps 
ruin one's health ; and so I try to cultivate a stoical apathy. 

" Perhaps we are wrong in aiming at producing too large results 
within a given time. I do not, as I grow older, lose my faith in 
humanity, and its future destinies; but I do' every year — per- 
haps it is natural with increasing years — feel less sanguine in 
my hope of seeing any material change in my own day and gen- 
eration. I sometimes doubt whether you would not have done 
more wisely to rely on your House of Commons influence, and 
been more shy of the Stump. Your greatest power is in the 
House. In quiet times, there is no influence to be had from 
without, and if we fell into evildays of turbulence, and suffering, 



Mr. 55.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 545 

and agitation, less scrupulous leaders would carry off the masses. 
You are not the less qualified to take your true position, from 
having shown that you are an outside, as well as an inside, leader. 
But I have an opinion that if you intend to follow politics, and 
not eschew office, you must in future be more exclusively a House 
of Commons man. 

"And then you must make up your mind to accept certain 
conditions of things as a part of our English political existence 
during your time. For instance, the Church and Aristocracy are 
great realities, which will last for your life and your sons'. To 
ignore them or despise them is equally incompatible with the 
part which I think you have the ambition to play, and which I 
am sure you are competent to perform. I remember that Presi- 
dent Buchanan, the day before he left London on his return to 
America, in the course of a conversation over the tea-table, 
remarked : ' I leave England with the conviction that you are not 
yet able to govern yourselves without the aid of your aristocracy.' 
There are things to be done which you and I could make a 
so-called Liberal government do, if we were out of the Cabinet, 
without being held ineligible by the Court and Aristocracy (ivith 
whom the most powerfid part of the middle class will be found 
sympathizing) to enter it, owing to any extreme democratic de- 
signs. But we are comparatively powerless if we can be assumed 
to be excluded from the government by either our own will, or 
that of the ruling class, owing to our entertaining revolutionary 
or fundamentally subversive doctrines. One great object which 
I should like to force our rulers, much against their will, to 
accomplish, is the limitation of our armed force, in relation to 
that of France. And this I will endeavor to promote, if I am 
spared, and my present task is successful, by an appeal to the 
French Government in the same unofficial way as I am now at 
work upon another affair. But I feel convinced that the great 
obstacle would be with our own ruling class. 

" This could only be overcome by an honest, party in the House, 
of which you must be the head. My talking days are, I think, 
nearly over: I have no confidence in my voice serving me much 
in. future. I suffer no inconvenience now; but a hoarseness 
interposes if I talk much, and I feel as if half an hour's public 
speaking would render me inaudible. However, I shall go to 
Cannes as soon as this business is decided one way or another, 
which must be within a fortnight. When I speak of being held 
eligible for office, I merely refer to the power which that gives us 
in the House. I have no intention to take office under any cir- 
cumstances, because I think I could do more good out of office. 
Besides, it is too late, even if I liked it. I am in my fifty-sixth 
year, and do not come of a long-lived parentage. 

. 35 



546 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

" T thought of saying a few words about the state of opinion 
here [Paris], the designs of the Emperor, etcetera. I have no 
prejudice against a voluntary armed force like the riflemen of 
Switzerland, or the militia of America, though it is open to ques- 
tion whether Joseph Hume was right in preferring a regular 
armed profession, on the principle of the division of labor. But 
the origin of our rifle corps, just after we had voted twenty-six 
millions for our armed professions, as a means of defence, and 
instigated by real or pretended fear of France, is such as to make 
the movement a disgraceful act of folly — speaking of the nation, 
and not of all the individuals who have been drawn into it." 



(3.) To William Hargreaves. 

Remarks on the writings of Louis Napoleon. 

" Cannes, March 14, 1860. — I have been amusing myself with 
reading very carefully the works of Louis Napoleon. They are 
published under his own auspices, in four splendid volumes, and 
are said to be without the alteration of a word. They have been 
lent to me, but if you were in an extravagant humor, they might 
be worth your buying. Besides the interest we all have in know- 
ing what has been passing through such a brain for the last 
thirty years, the style of his composition is a model worth study- 
ing. Baron Bunsen, who is here, tells me, apropos of his style, 
that De Tocqueville, who died lately at Cannes, and who was no 
friend of the Emperor's, declared that Louis Napoleon was the 
only man living who could write ' monumental French.' It is, I 
suppose, the consciousness of the possession of this talent, so 
greatly appreciated in France, which leads him to come so fre- 
quently before the public in print; for if he be taciturn in oral 
communications, the quality assuredly does not attach to his pen. 
.... But when we have praised his style, we have expressed 
the best that can be said of his volumes. Most assuredly we 
cannot indorse all that he says as a political economist, as the 
enclosed extract will show. There are some curious historical 
chapters upon the progress of artillery, a subject to which he 
seems to have devoted much study, and which now possesses 
great interest. But the chief charm of his works is in the absolute 
perfection of the style of his occasional addresses, extending over 
a series of years. That one in particular announcing his intended 
marriage as a parvenu, and giving his reasons for making choice 
of a private individual for his wife, is the most striking of all for 
the ingenuity and boldness of his argument, and the beauty of its 
composition. I must say I sought in vain for traces of that spirit 



^T. 56.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 547 

of vindictiveness towards England which politicians of the Hors- 
man school tell us, with so much solemn mysteriousness, pervades 
his writings. The whole tone of his works seem to me to be so 
singularly forbearing and magnanimous towards the implacable 
and successful enemy of his great idol, the first Bonaparte ; he 
treats the whole matter with so much philosophy when referring 
to the death struggle between France and England, that I wonder 
the alarmists and invasionists never discovered a plot in the ab- 
sence of all passionate resentment towards us, which characterizes 
these volumes." 

The following is the passage referred to : — 

(CEuvres de Napoleon, Tome DeuxQme, p. 234.) 

" L'Angleterre a realise le reve de certains economistes modernes ; elle sur- 
passe toutes les autres nations dans le bon marche de ses produits manufac- 
tures. Mais cet avantage, si e'en est un, n'a ete obtenu qu'au prejudice de la 
classe ouvriere. Le vil prix de la marchandise depend du vil prix du travail, 
et le vil prix du travail, e'est la misere du peuple. II ressort d'une publication 
recente, que pendant les dernieres annees, tandis que l'industrie Anglaise tri- 
plait sa production, la somme employee pour solder les ouvriers, diminuait d'un 
tiers. Elle a ete reduite de quinze millions a dix millions de livres sterling. 
Le consommateur a gagne, il est vrai, le tiers du salaire preleve sur la sueur de 
l'ouvrier ; mais de la aussi sont venus les perturbations et la malaise, qui ont 
affecte profondement la prosperite de la Grande Bretagne. Si, en France, les 
partisans de la, liberte du commerce osaient mettre en pratique leurs funestes 
theories, la France perdrait en richesse une valeur d'au moins deux milliards ; 
deux millions d'ouvriers resteraient sans travail, et notre commerce serait prive 
du benefice qu'il tire de l'immense quantite de niatieres premieres qui sont 
importees pour alimenter nos manufactures. 1 

Fort de Ham, Aout 1842." 



(4.) To W. Hargreaves. 

Effect of going to and fro between London and Paris. 

"Paris, April 23, 1860. — A curious influence is exerted on my 
mind in going to and fro between London and Paris, which helps 
to account for what is almost unaccountable. When in England, 
I find myself so surrounded with sayings and doings which are 
founded on the assumption, of evil designs on the part of the 
Emperor towards England, that I feel, in spite of myself, a little 
infected with doubt as to our safety. In fact, I breathe an at- 
mosphere tainted with panic, and I become affected by the general 
uneasiness. If this be so in my case, in spite of my predilections 
and my sane surroundings, how much more must other people 
be affected ? When I come to Paris, and approach close to the 

1 This extract contains some very erroneous doctrine as to the effect of increasing 
trade on workmen. But it is not necessary to discuss the matter here. 



548 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

imagined source of danger, all uneasiness and doubt disappear 
from my mind. In fact all idea of England being attacked by 
France is founded on the ignorance of what is going on here, and 
on the play of the imagination when the danger is afar off. Here 
is an illustration, by the way, of the advantage which will arise 
from more intimate intercourse between the two countries." 



(5.) To W. Hargreaves. 
The state of Europe. 

"Paris, May 7, 1860. — I have given a note of introduction to 
you to an old friend, Mr. Dunville, from the neighborhood of 
Belfast, who with his mother and sister are stopping a fortnight 
in London, on their way from this to Ireland. They are first- 
rate people in our sense, and you will be very much pleased if 
you pass an evening in their society. 

"We are now beginning the labors of the commission. If I 
were to judge by the programme setting forth our plan of pro- 
ceedings, the task might last a couple of years. But I take it for 
granted that all the intended inquiries into every article of the 
French tariff will very soon shape itself into a rule of thumb, and 
that the Government, which has already all the information at its 
fingers' ends, will undertake to act on its own responsibility. 
Whatever may be the result, I have made up my mind to be well 
abused for a year or two. In the end, after a few years' trial, the 
Treaty will justify itself. This assumes that we remain at peace, 
which the Times and its patrons seem bent on preventing. 

" The state of Germany is very unsatisfactory. Enormous sums 
are being wasted by a very poor people in preparations for war. 
There is a great uneasiness both with respect to their internal and 
external relations. The worst of it is that, as I learn, influential 
politicians in Prussia are beginning to hold this language : ' We 
must have a war with France sooner or later, and it is the only 
way in which we can get rid of our internal discords, and swamp 
the small States under the Eule of Prussia.' These people say : 
' We should be beaten back by France at the first shock, but we 
should recover everything with interest.' My belief is, that at this 
moment Louis Napoleon is about the most peaceable person in 
Europe. Everybody in France is well satisfied with the Savoy 
business, and the Emperor was never so popular. But he knows 
that he is mistrusted by all Europe, and that it would be danger- 
ous to attempt any fresh extension of his boundaries. However, 
it must not be supposed that he has any love for the present ter- 
ritorial arrangements in Europe. There is no doubt that he would 



^Jt. 56.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 549 

like to give Mr. Wyld an excuse for publishing another map of 
France. But he would not like it at the expense of a war with 
England. 

" I am not very proud of the spectacle presented by our mer- 
chants, brokers, and M. P.'s, in their ovations to the pugilist 
Sayers. This comes from the brutal instincts having been so sed- . 
ulously cultivated by our wars in the Crimea, and especially in 
India and China. I have always dreaded that our national char- 
acter would undergo deterioration (as did that of Greece and 
Eome) by our contact with Asia. With another war or two in 
India and China, the English people would have an appetite for 
bull-fights, if not for gladiators." 



(6.) To W. Hargreaves. 

Two Reasons against Political Despondency. 

" June 5, 1860. — I am sorry to see that you have been laid up. 
Depend on it, you overdo the work in proportion to your forces. 
Don't let public matters worry you. Why should you ? What- 
ever evils befall the country, you at least, in proportion to your 
strength, have done more than your share to prevent them. There 
are two things which we must always bear in mind when w r e grow 
impatient or desponding. How much has been done before us: 
how many will come after us to do what remains to be done." * 

(7.) To Mr. Bright. 

In 1860 violent disturbances broke out among the Christian population of 
Syria. They were followed by the despatch of a force of occupation from the 
European powers, and a commissioner was appointed for the reorganization of 
Syria. The discussion in the spring of 1861, between the French and English 
Governments, turned on the continuance of the European occupation. 

"Algiers, 18th March, 1861. — From what I hear from Paris, 
the two Governments are wrangling over Syrian matters. After 
what I saw of the spirit of the Foreign Office, it is always a source 
of wonder to 'me how any business in which the two Governments 
are concerned ever comes to an issue, and how they escape for six 
months from a rupture. For recollect, it is not merely Lord John's 
lecturing, but the ill-conditioned temper of and the subor- 
dinates with whom the details of the negotiations rest, that has to 

1 On the' other hand, on July 16, 1860, writing to a friend on the agitation 
kindled by the action of the House of Lords against the repeal of the Paper Duties, 
Cobden said:— " What strikes me in all these movements is the absence of new 
men. The good old veterans of the League turn up, but where are the young poli- 
ticians ? " 



550 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

be borne by the French Government. No one can defend, on 
principle, the French intervention in Syria. But our Government 
violates the principle of non-intervention towards the Turk every 
day; and every statesman in Europe, with the sole exception of 
Palmerston, recognizes the unavoidable fall of Ottoman rule at an 
early day, and the necessity of providing or recognizing some other 
mode of governing Turkey. Our Government alone now contends 
for the integrity of that ghastly phantom, the Ottoman Porte, at 
the same time that it lends its sanction by conferences at Paris, 
and commissions in Syria and Constantinople, to the violation of 
the rights of the Sultan's sovereignty. It is only when it is con- 
venient for a topic for a diplomatic wrangle with Russia and 
France, or to reconcile the British public to a war, that the Sublime 
Porte is paraded as an independent Power, whose sovereign rights 
are to be treated with respect. Is there no way of bringing mat- 
ters to a different attitude ? In my opinion nothing can be so 
dangerous as the present mode of treating the Turkish question, 
Either we ought to apply the same principle as in Italy — viz. 
allow the races of the same language and religion to join in putting 
down a foreign domination — or else to interfere to some final pur- 
pose. If the Great Powers will allow the Greeks outside of the 
present Turkish Empire to give their fellow-countrymen, or at 
least their co-religionists of the same language and race, material 
aid, they will soon succeed, with the aid of the other Christian 
sects,' in driving the Turks beyond the Bosphorus, and ere long in 
securing possession of the coast of Asia Minor and Syria. And 
why should this not be permitted by those who are so warm in 
their support of Garibaldi, who sallied forth from Nice with no 
better title to overturn the Neapolitan Government than the 
people of Athens or Syria would possess to drive the Turks from 
their less justifiable domination in Constantinople ? In fact, the 
foreigner has practically ruled Italy longer than the Osmanlis have 
possessed the ancient capital of the Greeks. But if England is not 
prepared to allow the Christians to drive out their Mahometan 
rulers, what is she prepared to do ? Surely it becomes a great 
country to have a policy which lifts its diplomacy out of the reach 
of mere intrigue and endless altercation and gossip, such as char- 
acterizes our present abortive proceedings on the Turkish question. 
The way in which we tolerate, nay perpetuate, the hideous evils 
of the Sultan's Government, because it is not convenient to our poli- 
ticians to bring the Eastern Question to an issue — the way in fact 
in which we prevent a body from dying which is no longer able 
to live, and look on complacently whilst millions of intelligent 
beings are suffering from contact with 'this despotism, tends to 
degrade Englishmen in the eyes of foreign nations, presenting us 
in the light of a selfish and unsympathizing people. 



.Er.56.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 551 

"There are a couple of volumes of De Tocqueville's corre- 
spondence and remains lately published, and in his letters to 
Senior and other English friends (which are full of interest), he 
alludes very delicately to the little sympathy felt for us in our 
Indian troubles by the nations of the Continent, and attributes it 
to the general impression that prevails (and which he says is not 
quite unfounded), that the English people make their foreign 
policy entirely subservient to their own narrow interests." 

(8.) To Samuel Lucas. 

The Syrian Massacres — French Intervention. 

"Paris, August 16, 1860. — I am disappointed that more is not 
said and done to create sympathy for the many thousand homeless 
widows and orphans in Syria. So great a calamity, so near to 
our doors by steam and telegram, ought to excite more compassion. 
Pray advocate subscriptions to relieve the sufferers. Money is 
really the form in which intervention is most needed, though I 
would not say a word in opposition to French succor in a more 
potent form. How are the guilty to be punished, or those sold 
into captivity to be recovered, unless an European armed force 
appear on the scene ? The Turkish soldiers cannot be depended 
on, for the simple reason that they are not paid." 

(9.) To Mr. Bright. 

Free Trade could only have been carried while the Nation was in a sober 

mood. 

"To my eye, from this distance, there seems a strange con- 
tempt of sober domestic politics among the English people. They 
have been biases by wars in India and the Crimea and by the 
great events of the Continent, and are like people who have drunk 
to excess, or eaten nothing but spiced meats, and cannot relish 
anything less exciting. I have often thought how lucky we were 
that, when struggling for Free Trade in corn, the Continent was 
slumbering under Louis Philippe's soporific reign, and that we had 
to deal with statesmen like Peel and Lord Aberdeen, who were 
too honest and sedate to get up a war or foreign complications to 
divert attention from home grievances. Think how impossible it 
would be in these times to keep public attention for seven years 
to one domestic grievance. Why, Garibaldi would draw off the 
eyes of the country from any agitation you could raise in our 
day ! The concentrated earnestness with which political parties 
were at work in the United States, inspired me with full faith 



552 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1860. 

that the people of the country would, in spite of the difficulties 
and dangers of their political issues, work out their salvation. If 
I had found them engaged in settling the affairs of the whole 
world, instead of their own, I should have despaired." 



(10.) To William Hargreaves. 

Annexation of Savoy. 

" I should like to know what practical result is likely to follow 
from our Foreign Minister persevering in borrowing the tone of 
Mr. Kinglake and Sir Eobert Peel in his despatches to the French 
Government. The annexation of Savoy to France is a ' fait ac- 
compli.' The bargain has pleased Piedmont, the Savoyards, and 
the French people, the only parties really interested ; and why, 
instead of the snarling, dissatisfied tone in which our Foreign 
Minister persists in treating the matter, cannot he dismiss it with 
a little of the dignity with which the Eussian or Austrian Gov- 
ernment has got rid of the disagreeable affair. There is nothing 
so unworthy of a nation, or even of a man, as a tone of dissatisfied 
criticism, which leaves no after resource but a fit of pouting and 
sulking. It is a style of controversy fit only for the nursery. I 
should like to know whether the correspondence now going on 
between our Foreign Office and the American Government upon 
the subject of the island of St. Juan, is conducted in the same 
captious, irritating tone as that which has characterized some of 
our recent despatches to France, Austria, and Naples. If so, the 
train is being laid for either a war or a great humiliation." 

(11.) To William Hargreaves. 

Hopelessness of our rule in India. 

"Paris, August 4, 1860. — To confess the truth I have no heart 
for discussing any of the details of Indian management, for I look 
on our rule there as a whole with an eye of despair. Whether 
you put a screen before your eyes and call it a local army, or 
whether you bring the management face to face in London, the 
fact is still the same. The English people in Parliament have 
undertaken to be responsible for governing one hundred and fifty 
millions of people, despotically, in India. They have adopted the 
principle of a military despotism, and I have no faith in such an 
undertaking being anything but a calamity and a curse to the 
people of England. Ultimately, of course, nature will assert the 
supremacy of her laws, and the white skins will withdraw to their 



JSt. 56.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 553 

own latitudes, leaving the Hindoos to the enjoyment of the cli- 
mate to which their complexion is suited. In the mean time we 
shall suffer all kinds of trouble, loss, and disgrace. Every year 
will witness an increased drain of men and money to meet the 
loss entailed on us. In the mean time, too, an artificial expansion 
of our exports growing out of government expenditure in India 
will delude us as to the value of our ' possessions ' in the East, and 
the pride of territorial greatness will prevent our loosening our 
hold upon them. Is it not just possible that we may become cor- 
rupted at home by the reaction of arbitrary political maxims in 
the East upon our domestic politics, just as Greece and Eome 
were demoralized by their contact with Asia ? But I am wander- 
ing into the regions of the remote future. It is, however, from an 
abiding conviction in my mind that we have entered upon an im- 
possible and hopeless career in India, that I can never bring my 
mind to take an interest in the details of its government." 



(12.) To Henry Ashworth. 

The War in China. 

" Paris, August 27,1860. — * * * * I have been watching 
with interest the course of events in China, where it seems we 
are performing the double and rather inconsistent task of aiding 
the rebellion in the interior and putting it down on the coast ! It 
is well known that by our wars with the Chinese, — by paralyzing 
the central government and destroying its prestige with its peo- 
ple, — we help the rebels in their work of confusion and slaughter. 
But on their approach to Shanghai we are, it seems, to help the 
Government to resist the insurgents. But of what use will the 
seaports be if the interior of the empire, where silk and tea are 
grown, is to be given up to pillage and anarchy ? Think of the 
Americans coming to let loose fire and slaughter in Lancashire 
and Yorkshire, but setting up at the same time as the protectors of 
Liverpool ! Where is all this folly and wickedness to end ? Shall 
we ever learn to live at peace and be content with the honest 
possessions with which God has so bountifully blessed our island ? 
Unfortunately, we have a class — and that the most influential 
one — which makes money out of these distant wars, or these 
home panics about a French invasion. How could your aristoc- 
racy endure without this expenditure for wars and armaments ? 
Could not a less worthy and inhuman method of supporting them 
be hit upon ? When I am talking over the reduction of duties 
with M. Eouher, and we come to some small industry employing 
a few hands and a little capital, which has put in its claim for 



554 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

high protection, I am in the habit of suggesting to him that rather 
than interfere with the trade of the country for the purpose of 
feeding and clothing these small protected interests, he had better 
withdraw the parties from their unprofitable occupations, take 
some handsome apartments for them in the Louvre Hotel, and 
feast them on venison and champagne at the country's expense 
for the rest of their days. Might not a similar compromise be 
entered into with the younger sons of our aristocracy, instead of 
supporting them by the most costly of all processes, that of war 
or preparation for war ?"**** 



(13.) To Samuel Lucas. 

Anti-social interest of great Producers. 

''Paris, 1860. — I looked in yesterday at Galignani's reading- 
room (where I had not been before) to glance at the papers. They 
are of course all high-priced, and not one word was said in any 
one of them, weekly, daily, or provincial, upon the subject in 
question. This very conspiracy to ignore the question of the 
paper duty ought to be the most conclusive argument in favor of 
its repeal. It proves that the high-priced papers have an interest 
opposed to that of the public. I remember, when Lord Althorp 
was Chancellor of the Exchequer, being one of a deputation of 
calico-printers urging on the Government the repeal of the excise 
duty on prints. In the course of the conversation it was re- 
marked that some of the largest printers were opposed to the 
movement, on which Lord Althorp, with that instinctive good 
sense which characterized him, observed : ' That is in my opinion 
one of the strongest possible arguments in your favor, for it is 
evident, if the great calico-printers are in favor of the tax, that 
their interest cannot be the public interest' ", 

(14.) To Samuel Lucas. 

Politics in the Counties. . 

"Algiers, 23d February, 1861. — It is a mistake to suppose, 
because there are no contests in the counties, and because a few 
nobles or proprietors settle the candidatures and the returns in 
every case, that there is no political spirit in our provincial towns 
and villages. There is more healthy radicalism to be found 
scattered about our small towns and villages than in the larger 
boroughs. I mean that it is a more sturdy kind of democratic 
sentiment, for it goes directly against the feudal domination under 



JIt.57.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 555 

which we really live, whereas in the great towns radicalism often 
misses its mark and is assailing some insignificant grievance. If 
you can see your way for carrying out this idea, I would take 
some apropos occasion for announcing 1 the intention to ' open up,' 
as we say of China, the politics of our counties. You would then 
have volunteers aiding you with information. Let it be seen who 
are the men who really return the county members. Show how 
absolutely the 5 to 10,000 registered electors are ignored in the 
choice of their representatives. No meetings to discuss the ques- 
tion, no contests, not even a newspaper controversy, to decide the 
merits of candidates who are generally totally unknown by any 
political antecedents. Challenge a comparison between the mode 
of doing these things in the counties and the large boroughs, as 
well as between the merits of the knights of the shire, and the 
burgesses returned to Parliament." 



(15.) To William Hargreaves. 
Life in Algiers — The English Working Class. 

"Algiers, 1st March, 1861. — The weather here continues all 
that could be possibly desired. The scenery around Algiers for 
walking or horse exercise is remarkably beautiful. It is threaded 
with foot-paths and Arab tracks in all directions, presenting a great 
variety of views. I have hardly ever seen a city possessing such 
resources in its neighborhood. We have a clear sky generally, or 
with only a few clouds to break the monotony. Very seldom any 
rain. It is very hot in the sun's rays. A thermometer on a table 
in front of the house stood the other day at 95. But in the shade 

it is quite different This difference between the sun and 

shade makes it difficult to avoid getting a chill. It is this, too, 
that prevents vegetation coming on before its time ; for although 
we have green peas and flowers in abundance, and the almond- 
trees and others are showing young fruit, yet the vines and other 
trees have not yet begun to shoot. You must not, however, sup- 
pose from this that the nights are cold. Such a thing as a white 
frost is not known. Togs are equally unknown. If called on to 
say, I should be of opinion that the air is too sharp and clear for 
active consumptive cases. But for a person without organic 
disease, but with a tendency to asthma or pulmonary weakness, 
I should consider it excellent. 

" My friends advise me to remain till after Easter, which hap- 
pens very early this year, and I think I shall do so. There is 

1 Mr. Lucas was now Editor of the Morning Star. 



556 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

certainly nothing in the House to tempt one to return. The tone 
of the leading, or rather misleading, members is just of that hollow 
mocking kind which would worry me into bad health. I wonder 
the working people are so quiet under the taunts and insults 
offered them. Have they no Spartacus among them to head a 
revolt of the slave class against their political tormentors ? I 
suppose it is the reaction from the follies of Chartism, which keeps 
the present generation so quiet. However, it is certain that so 
long as five millions of men are silent under their disabilities, 
it is quite impossible for a few middle-class members of Parlia- 
ment to give them liberty, and this is the language I shall hold 
when called on to speak to them. It is bad enough that we have 
a political machine which will not move till the people put their 
shoulders to the wheel. But we must face things as they are, and 
not live in a dreamland of our own creating. The middle class 
have never gained a step in the political scale without long labor 
and agitation out of doors, and the working people may depend 
on it they can only rise by similar efforts, and the more plainly 
they are told so the better." 

(16.) To J. ParJces. 

Arles-Dufour — The Eights of Women. 

"Feb. 11, 1860. — It is charming to see him at sixty-five with 
his heart still running off with his head ! He would not allow 
the word ' obey ' to be used by women in the marriage ceremony, 
and has other very rebellious notions. My doctrine is that in 
proportion as physical force declines in the world, and moral 
power acquires the ascendant, women will gain in the scale. 
Christianity in its doctrines, though not yet coming up to its own 
standard in its practice, did more than anything since the world 
began to elevate women. The Quakers have acted Christianity, 
and their women have approached nearer to an equality with the 
other sex than any of the descendants of Eve. I am always 
laboring to put clown physical force, and substitute something 
better, and therefore I consider myself a fellow-laborer with your 
daughter in the cause of women's rights. And yet, strange to 
say, women are the greatest favorers of soldiering and sailoring, 
and all that appertains to war." 

It was the 6th of May before Cobden arrived in Paris on his 
way home. On the 12th, he had an audience of the Emperor at 
the Tuileries — the last interview that they had. 

"May 12. — The Emperor spoke upon the Turkish question and 
the affairs of Syria, and seemed to regret the misunderstandings 



/Et. 57.] PARTS. 557 

which arose upon the subject between himself and the English 
Government. I suggested that the two countries should come to 
a frank agreement; that neither of them would take a hectare 
of territory from Turkey in Europe ; that the same policy should 
be enforced upon Eussia and Austria ; that then the doctrine of 
non-intervention which had been applied to Italy, should be 
adopted towards European Turkey ; that the Christians should 
be allowed to drive the Turks back into Asia ; that the Greeks 
had a right to repossess themselves of their ancient capital of 
Constantinople ; and no foreign Power had a right to stand 
between them and the recovery of their rights from their Mahom- 
etan conquerors. He remarked that it would be desirable to let 
Austria have Bosnia and Herzegovina, in exchange for Venetia ; 
and that it had been the policy of Russia to prevent the formation 
of a Greek empire at Constantinople. I urged strongly that if 
France and England were to apply the policy of non-intervention ' 
to Turkey in Europe, and renounce all selfish objects themselves, 
they would be in so strong a position both morally and materially 
as to be able to dictate the same course to Eussia. I urged the 
necessity of abandoning the idea of sustaining the Turks in Europe; 
that the Christians in Turkey constituted the only element of 
progress ; that they possessed the wealth, carried on the commerce, 
and comprised the artists, professional men, &c. ; that the Turks 
did not possess a single vessel engaged in foreign trade ; and 'that 
all the commerce of the Black Sea and the eastern parts of the 
Mediterranean were rapidly falling into their hands (the Greeks) ; 
in fact, Turkey in Europe, so far as the Mahometan population 
was concerned, had hardly more relations with the progress and 
civilization of the age than Timbuctoo had. 

" May 14 — Called on Mdme. Cornu, a lady who from her' 
childhood had been the playmate and friend of the Emperor, and 
who showed us a couple of volumes of his letters to her, the first 
of which was dated in 1820, when he was only twelve years old. 
Several of the letters were read to us. They were written in an 
affectionate and sentimental tone. She described him as possess- 
ing a feminine softness of character, that he always as a boy was 
very slow and vacillating in choosing any course of action, but 
that, when once decided, he followed his bent with great energy. 
She did not regard him as a genius, but as possessing great good 
sense, with a very amiable disposition. 

"May 15. — Dined with M. Eouher, Minister of Commerce, and 
met a large party. Had a conversation with the Minister of 
Marine, who narrated to me the facts of the explanations he had 
had with Mr. Lindsay respecting the force of the two navies ; said 
he had invited Lord Clarence Paget to come over and inspect 
the French navy and ascertain the truth of the statement made 



558 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

by the French Government. He (the Minister of Marine) stated 
that the French did not aim at an equality with the English, but 
merely to be the first of the second-class Powers ; that they relied 
on their army and regarded their navy as merely an accessory, 
whilst England trusted to her navy, and only looked to her army 
as an accessory. He complained that England had last year 
greatly exceeded the fair proportion which she was accustomed to 
maintain in comparison with the French navy. He told me that 
the Emperor had often spoken to him on this subject. He 
remarked, also, that the Emperor had discussed with him the 
question whether he ought to make additional outlays for his 
navy and for fortifications to meet the preparations going on in 
England, and that he (the Emperor) had dismissed the subject 
with the observation, ' Let them (the English) go on with their 
expenditure ; they will find out the uselessness of their policy 
by-and-by. In the mean time, I don't know that it does us any 
harm.' The Minister of Marine told me that Lord Cowley had 
complained to him that he had given the particulars of the amount 
of the French naval force to Mr. Lindsay, and not to him ; the 
Minister replied that it was useless to give such particulars to 
the English Government, as they were only misconstrued and 
misrepresented. " 

On May 16, Cobden left Paris for England. The directors 
of the railway placed a carriage gratuitously at his disposal to 
Dieppe. A public meeting had been held at Dover, at which a 
resolution of welcome had been passed, to be presented to him on 
landing. But he went from Dieppe, not to Dover, but to New- 
haven, whence he proceeded to the old home (May 18) under the 
Sussex Downs, having seen the manners of many men and many 
cities, and having done a good and difficult stroke of work for 
two great countries. 



CHAPTEE XXXIV. 

THE AMERICAN WAR — FORTIFICATION SCHEMES — INTER- 
NATIONAL LAW. 

In one of his last letters before leaving Algiers, Cobden had written 
to Mr. Hargreaves in rather a depressed vein. " The truth must be 
told," he said ; " though one does not like publicly to shelve one- 
self — my work is nearly done. I am nearly fifty-seven, and not, 
like you, of a long-lived family. Since I passed my meridian a 
few years ago, I have found my powers sensibly waning, and par- 



Mr. 57.] RETURN TO ENGLAND. 559 

ticularly those organs of the voice which I exercised so rudely 
whilst in their prime, and which were naturally but a weak inheri- 
tance from my father. If, however, I could pass the remainder 
of my days with only the labor of an average person of my years, 
I could, I dare say, nurse myself into a good old age. The ques- 
tion is whether I ought rather to content myself with a briefer 
span and the satisfaction of trying to do something a little beyond 
my strength ? It is a nice question for casuists, for the home 
duties affecting one's young children intrude." 

When Cobclen returned to England his public position had 
more than recovered the authority and renown which had been 
seriously impaired by his unpopular attitude on the Eussian War, 
and his devotion to the thankless questions of Eetrenchment and 
Peace. It was felt that the reproach of sentimental statesman- 
ship could not well be applied to a man who had conducted so 
tough and laborious an undertaking as the negotiation of a tariff. 
The commercial class were compelled to forgive what they called 
his crotchets, to one who had opened for them new channels of 
wealth. The Lord Mayor entertained him at a banquet. In the 
House of Commons he received a hearty welcome, but a short 
speech on the repeal of the paper duty was his only contribution 
to its proceedings before the end of the session. He had never 
even in the darkest times lost the ear of this assembly. It seldom 
refuses to listen to anybody who can furnish it in moderately few 
words with aptly chosen fact, or substantial and unsophisticated 
argument. Everybody understood that neither he nor Mr. Bright 
took up a question for the sake of having a question. Their 
subjects were put into their minds by actual circumstances from 
without. Their habit, as I think that Cobden himself said, was 
only to step out and join the debate when they saw that it 
was passing their door. It was always known that, whenever 
Cobden spoke, he really sought to have something done or left 
undone. A speech with him was a means of accomplishing some- 
thing, and always referred to practical performance of some kind. 
" You know, gentlemen, I never perorate," he sometimes said to 
great meetings of his constituents, " and when I have done, I leave 
off, and sit down." This abstinence was in itself an enormous 
recommendation. Then as a debater, so fine a judge as Mr. 
Disraeli pronounced Cobden to have few equals ; as a logician, he 
described him as close and compact, adroit, acute, and even subtle. 
Even the politicians who most disliked what one of them called 
Boanerges-Liberalism, found nothing to offend them in a man 
who was never either declamatory or passionate ; and who never 
lost sight of the sympathies of those whom he addressed. 1 

1 Mr. George Hope, the well-known tenant-farmer (of Fenton Barns), gives an 
account in one of his letters of the way in which Cobden used to be received in the 



560 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

Before the year was over, events came to pass which once more 
brought Cobden, and perhaps in a still greater degree Mr. Bright, 
into an almost angrier conflict than before with the same classes 
and interests with whom they had been in strife from the first. 
The great civil war broke out between the Northern and the 
Southern States of the American Union. England, according to 
its peculiar custom, was quickly divided into two vehemently 
opposed camps. Once more Cobden found himself in antagonism 
to Lord Palmerston, Lord Eussell, the Times newspaper, and all 
the other representatives of the aristocratic classes, and those who 
imitate and feel with these classes. 

As his correspondence shows, Cobden did not at first seize the 
true significance of the struggle. There were reasons why he 
should be slow to take the side of the North. One of them was 
that he could not for a time bear to face the prospect that the 
community which had hitherto been the realization on so great a 
scale of his pacific ideals, should after all plunge into war just as 
a monarchy or an oligarchy might have done. The North, by re- 
fusing to allow the South to secede, seemed to him at first to be 
the author of the strife. Another reason why his sympathies 
wavered was that though the Southerners were slaveholders, their 
interests made them Free Traders. As we have seen more than 
once, Cobden was always prone to be led by his sympathies as 
an economist. The hesitation, however, did not last long. He, 
who had converted so many thousands of people, was in this in- 
stance himself converted by Mr. Bright, whose sagacity, sharpened 
by his religious hatred of slavery, at once perceived that a break- 
up of the American Union would be a damaging blow to the 
cause of freedom all over the world. At the beginning of the 
struggle, they happened to meet Mr. Motley at breakfast. With 
a good deal of liveliness Cobden attacked something which Mr. 
Motley had been writing in the newspapers in favor of the North- 
House: — " Mr. Cobden drove us to the House of Commons, as there was a morning 
sitting, and, having put us into the Speaker's gallery, took his place in the House. 
The business was the County Courts Bill. The Solicitor-General spoke long and 
well, but had to give in as to who should practise before these courts. He (the 
Solicitor-General) wished to confine it to attorne}^ and barristers, one of each. 
After several others spoke, most of them in the midst of much noise, Mr. Cobden 
rose; at once you might have heard a pin fall, and in a very few sentences he put 
the matter in a true light. He said .... that there was to be no monopoly, that 
the suitor might employ nobody or anybody he pleased, and there was tremendous 
cheering. Afterwards Mr. Cobden spoke again, and with the same effect. After a 
vast deal of talk, strangers were ordered to withdraw, but no division took place, 
as the Government gave in, and Mr. Cobden came to us rejoicing in his victory. 
He took us to the House of Lords (where we saw the Lord Chancellor and some 
others), and to see the proceedings before a Committee of the House of Commons. 
With Mr. Smith, the Member for Dunfermline, we went over all the New Houses 
of Parliament. We met with large numbers of Members, who attributed to Mr. 
Cobden the victory gained." — Memoir, p. 185. 



Mt. 57.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 561 

ern case. As they walked away down Piccadilly together, Mr. 
Bright remonstrated with Cobden on these symptoms of a leaning 
towards the South. The argument was continued and renewed 
as other arguments had been between them. The time came for 
Cobden to address his constituents at Eochdale. "Now," said 
Mr. Bright, with a final push of insistence, " this is the moment 
for you to speak with a clear voice." Cobden's vision by this 
time was no longer disturbed by economic or other prepossessions, 
and he was henceforth as generally identified as Mr. Bright with 
support of the Northern cause. 

The interest in the conflict soon took a practical turn. The 
circumstances of the war very speedily raised great questions 
connected with the maritime rights of belligerents and neutrals, 
and Cobden threw himself energetically into a discussion which 
was of vital importance to Great Britain. His activity between 
the date of the Commercial Treaty and the time of his death was 
principally directed to two objects ; the improvement of interna- 
tional law as it affects commerce in time of war, and the limita- 
tion of expenditure upon unneeded schemes of national defence. 
The first and more important of these subjects had been brought 
into a conspicuous place for public discussion by the Declaration of 
Paris in 1856. Free ships were then declared to make free goods. 
The merchants of a nation in a state of war were to be free to 
carry on their trade as usual, provided that they should send their 
goods in the ships of neutral Powers. Cobden carried this favor 
to neutrals a great deal further, and he explained his position in 
a carefully reasoned letter to Mr. Ashworth, then the Chairman 
of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce (April 10, 1862). 1 Not 
only, he contended, ought all private property, that of enemies no 
less than that of neutrals, to be exempt from capture at sea, but 
neutral ships ought to be exempt from right of visitation and 
search, and, most important of all, the commercial ports of an 
enemy ought to be exempt from blockade. Cobden's defence of 
this transformation of what he called the old barbarous code of 
international maritime law, rested not merely, or even not at all, 
on the claims of natural justice, but on the special requirements 
of our own country. A population circumstanced as ours is in 
respect both of its food and of the raw materials of its industry, is 
interested beyond all others in removing every regulation which 
interferes with the free circulation of the necessaries of life, 
whether in time of peace or war. Why should we persist, he 
asked, in upholding a belligerent right which we have always 
shrunk from enforcing, and shall never rigorously apply, by which 
we place in the hands of other belligerents the power at any 

1 Published in his Collected Writings, ii. pp. 5 - 22. The three changes which 
he there proposes are those enumerated in the letter to Mr. Paulton, below, p. 576. 

36 



562 LIFE OF COBDEN. [18C2. 

moment of depriving a large part of our population of the supply 
of the raw materials of their industry and of the necessaries of 
life ? The Cotton Famine in Lancashire, caused by the blockade 
of the Southern ports of the United States, gave to these views a 
painful appositeness, and Cobden pressed the arguments of his 
letter to Mr. Ashworth still more forcibly and with a greater 
breadth of illustration in an address to the Manchester Chamber 
of Commerce in the autumn of the same year. 1 

In the course of 1862 Cobden made one of his most determined 
and systematic onslaughts upon Lord Palmerston's policy of 
national defence. He carried on very effective skirmishing during 
the session, until at the close of it (Aug. 1), as an eyewitness 
describes it, they engaged in a regular single combat. 2 The 
House was thin, the conclusion was foregone, and no effect fol- 
lowed from Cobden's undaunted perseverance. Perhaps more was 
done by a pamphlet which he published earlier in the same year, 
The Three Panics, a strenuous and humiliating narrative of the 
incoherent alarms of invasion which had seized successive Gov- 
ernments in 1848, in 1853, and in 1862. 3 Mr. Gladstone thought 
that the narrative laid more than the . full share of blame upon 
Governments and Parliament, and that it was unjust to let the 
general public go scot-free. He told Cobden a story of a large 
farmer whom he had canvassed in the general election of 1857. 
He exclaimed to the farmer against the amount of the military 
and naval charges. " Well, sir," the voter said, " we want to be 
defended ; " and no impression was to be made upon him. In 
truth, as Mr. Gladstone put it, there was a residuum of excitement 
standing over from the Eussian war which had nourished all the 
subsequent alarm. . Nor was it to be denied, either, that the world 
had become more volcanic since the days to which Cobden re- 
ferred. It was in vain that he quoted Peel's excellent practical 
maxim, that in time of peace " you must consent to incur some 

i Speeches, ii. 279. Oct. 25, 1862. 

2 "There they stood," said Mr. Grant Duff, "unreconciled and irreconcilable, — 
the representatives of two widely different epochs, and of two widely different types 
of Fnglish life. The one trained in the elegant but superficial culture which was 
usual among the young men of his position in life at the beginning of this century, 
full of pluck, full of intelligence, but disinclined, alike by the character of his mind 
and by the habit of official life from indulging in political speculation, or pursuing 
long trains of thought ; yet yielding to no man in application, in the quickness of 
his judgment, in knowledge of a statesman's business, and in the power of enlisting 
the support of what has been truly called ' that floating mass which in all countries 
and all time has always decided all questions.' The other derived from nature finer 
powers of mind, but many years passed away before he could employ his great 
abilities in a field sufficiently wide for them. There he stood, an admirable repre- 
sentative of the best section of the class to which he belongs, full of large and phi- 
lanthropic hopes, and full of confidence in his power to realize them," &c. Mr. 
Grant Duff's Elgin Speeches, p. 25. — See his Speeches, ii. 257. 

8 Collected Writings, vol. ii. 



Mi. 58.] FORTIFICATION SCHEMES. 563 

risk " (see above, p. 357). There was one risk which statesmen 
and the public saw closer at hand, and which they were bent on 
not incurring if they could help it, and that was risk from the 
possible necessities of the French Emperor. On the special issues, 
therefore, between himself and Lord Palmerston, such as the For- 
tification Scheme, Cobden made little way in opinion. What he 
did was certainly to moderate what Mr. Gladstone called " the 
spirit of expenditure," and this according to him was more objec- 
tionable and more dangerous than the expenditure itself. 1 

1 The case against Cobden's view was well put in a letter addressed to him by- 
Lord John Russell : — 

" Pembroke Lodge, April 2, 1861. 

"My dear Mr. Cobden, — The question you raise in your letter to me of the 
22d March is a very serious one, and so we must both consider it. 

" Lord Palmerston, it appears from the Times, has said that the policy of France 
has been for a length of time to get up a navy which shall be equal, if not superior, 
to our own. Lord Palmerston does not complain of this policy, but he says that to 
deny it is to shut our eyes against notorious facts, and he defends a policy which is 
meant to provide for our own security against this notorious policy of France. As 
to the facts, I do not pretend to enter into details of rival navy estimates, but I 
will mention what is notorious. It is notorious that two or three years ago France 
had a number of line-of-battle ships exceeding by one that in the British navy. It 
is notorious that France is now building a number of iron-cased ships more or less 
rapidly, exceeding that which we are building. It is notorious that having these 
ships she has between 30,000 and 40,000 seamen, inscribed in a register, whom she 
can add to her present number of sailoi's, which exceeds 33,000. Such being the 
state of facts, I will mention to you that two years ago. I stated to the Count de 
Persigny, then Ambassador of France, that our maritime strength was essential to 
our existence as a nation ; that in 1817 Lord Castlereagh had stated to a Select 
Committee that Great Britain ought to have a navy equal to the two strongest 
navies in the world, that the nation had accepted this dictum as a practical maxim 
always to be kept in view. 

"Acting on these general views, we do not care whether France has or not 
400,000 soldiers in arms, with 200,000 more ready drilled and capable of joining 
their colors in a fortnight, but we do care when we see her cherishing, nursing, and 
increasing her naval forces. We therefore endeavor to provide a navy adequate to 
maintain our ehai-acter, our position, and our safety. We are willing to stake our 
existence as a Ministry on the grant of the number of men for the navy we have 
asked for. I am aware that the expense is great, the burden is irksome, and that 
the French are irritated by our obstinacy in being determined to defend ourselves. 
But all these considerations yield to the paramount consideration of national 
security. 

' ' Upon this ground whenever you raise the question we shall be ready to stand. 

"Allow me before I close to ask you to reflect on the suggestions which are made 
to you and Mr. Lindsay, and not to Lord Cowley, Col. Claremont, and Commander 
Hore, by the French Ministers. These suggestions appear to me to betoken a 
desire on the* part of France to raise in Parliament an opposition to armaments of a 
defensive character, in order to insure French supremacy. This policy would not 
be unnatural, nor would it be new. Lord Macaulay, in giving an account of the 
instructions of Lewis to his Ambassador, Count Tallard, when he came to England 
after the peace of Ryswick, says, ' In the original draft of the instructions was a 
curious paragraph which, on second thoughts, it was determined to omit. The 
Ambassador was directed to take proper opportunities of cautioning the English 
against a standing army as the only thing which could really be fatal to their laws 
and liberties.' 

"We are very glad to enter with the French into improved commercial relations, 
and very grateful to you for your labors in this direction. But when they advise 



564 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

He deplored the absence from the scene of his steadfast ally, 
but Mr. Bright remained at Eochdale. He told Cobden how he 
admired his courage and perseverance, but he could not imitate it. 
For the moment he acknowledged himself beaten. The fates 
were against them in the shape of the ignorance and flunkyism 
of the middle classes. After the final battle in August Mr. Bright 
wrote to him that he had maintained the struggle most manfully. 
" I have never," he said, " read speeches with more pleasure than 
these in which you have attempted to destroy the most shameless 
imposture of our time. But speeches will hardly do it. Since 
1854 the public have been so thoroughly demoralized that they 
have become literally helpless, and I can scarcely conceive of an 
event sufficiently insulting and alarming to them to excite them 
to any positive and united action. The workingmen have no 
leaders of their own class, and they have no faith in any others. 
I wait, therefore, for some accident to bring about a change. 
Possibly Palmerston's final fall, which cannot be long postponed, 
may act as an awakener throughout the country. Still I think 
your speeches are preparing the way for some discoveries on the 
part of our dim-seeing people." This prophecy was fulfilled to 
the letter. Liberalism remained stationary until Lord Palmer- 
ston's death, and it was not long after that event that the great 
awakening took place which landed Mr. Gladstone in power, with 
Mr. Bright himself for the most popular and influential of 'his 
colleagues. 

Cobden's correspondence during these final years touches other 
topics, but the fortunes of the war in America, international mar- 
itime law, and national expenditure, were the subjects which now 
filled the largest space both in his thoughts and in his public 
addresses. 

Maritime Law. 

"April 26, 1861. {To Mr. W. S. Lindsay) — In your letter 
upon maritime law in time of war, you shirk the pinching point 
of the whole question, by omitting allusion to the fact that we 
gave up our old belligerent rights over neutrals, not from choice 
but from necessity. It was the attitude of the United States at 
the outbreak of the Russian War, which induced us to suspend 
those ' rights ' of search and seizure, the enforcement of which led 
to our last war with America. And we yielded up permanently 
those rights at the Paris Congress from the same motives, namely, 

us against arming for our defence, while they do not bate a jot of their preparations 
military and naval, the instinct of the British nation distrusts the friendship which 
appears in so suspicious a guise. 

" I remain, yours very faithfully, 

"J. Russell." 



JEt. 57-] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 565 

deference to the attitude of the United States, though no Ameri- 
can plenipotentiary was present. In fact, as you know, all the 
modifications in our old arbitrary navigation code had their origin 
in the rising power of the United States as a maritime people. 

" Looked at in this light, the question is much more simple 
than you assume it to be, for you put the alternative of going 
back to the state of things before the Paris Congress, as though 
the consent of England to that Congress were a voluntary choice, 
and not an inevitable necessity. Viewed in this manner, there 
cannot be a doubt in any sane mind that it is our interest to go 
on even to the extent stipulated for by President Buchanan in 
his late letter on the subject. With the European law as it now 
stands, it merely offers the carrying trade to the United States in 
case of a war between England and any other maritime state suf- 
ficiently powerful to keep a few fast steamers at sea. Anybody 
who opposes your proposal to put England and America on the 
same footing in case of war, does not understand our present sit- 
uation. 

" P. S. The peace-at-any-price party (if there be one) are not 
so much interested as the war people in putting us on a par with 
the United States in case of hostilities with a maritime power ; 
for in the present state of things a war with France, whatever 
might be the ultimate result, must involve tenfold sacrifices to 
England, as compared with what would be the case if your plan 
were acceded to. In fact, if France could keep a few swift steam 
corvettes at sea, to raise our sea insurance at Lloyd's 10 per cent, 
our ships would have to transfer their registry to the United 
States or to rot in our ports. It is evident that the knowledge of 
these facts must weigh with our statesmen to prevent them from 
embarking in a war with France. In so far it plays the game of 
the peace-at-any-price party, but at the risk of national humilia- 
tion." 

"July 27, 1861. ( „ ) — I have read the debates on the 
iron-cased ships in the Times. It is important only so far as it 
elicited a most able and statesmanlike speech from Disraeli, 
which will bear fruits. 1 .... You were wrong in throwing over- 

1 The subject of the discussion was the naval competition between England and 
France. Mr. Disraeli's point was that there could be no reason why the two Gov- 
ernments should not come to an understanding as to the relative proportion of the 
naval forces to be maintained by the two Powers ; and that if the march of science 
compelled fresh efforts to- establish adequate naval forces, the leading statesmen of 
each country ought at least to do all in their power to enlighten the public as to 
the true meaning of what was going on. Lord Palmerston, instead of laying stress 
on the revolution in naval affairs, always left people to suppose that an insane com- 
petition for supremacy at sea was going on between two rival relations. {Hansard, 
clxiv. 1678.) This was only one of several admirable speeches made by Mr. Disraeli 
at this time, which amply justified Cobden's express preference of him over Lord 
Palmerston. 



566 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

board your Paris authority, and giving in your adhesion to the 
Secretary of the Admiralty. There was no necessity to contradict 
him until you had the disproofs. But I would have waited for 
the answer from the other side. My maxim has been to distrust 
the Treasury bench at all times, and never admit myself wrong in 
a controversy with the Government, until I have better evidence 
than their assertions. Old Saddletree's example in the Heart of 
Midlothian is worth remembering. "When hard pressed by an 
opponent in an argument, who asked, ' There, can ye deny that, 
Master Saddletree % ' he replied, ' No ; but 1 5 m not going to ad- 
mit it, neither.' " 

British. Policy in China. 

1861. (To Mr. Hargreaves.) — You will have seen that 



these articles generally, especially those in the Times, lay all the 
blame of their wars on our commercial classes, and the cost 
thus entailed on the country is made a grievance on the part 
of the aristocratic and propertied classes, on account of the tax- 
ation which they bring on the country. So far as the charge 
against our merchants is concerned, I am afraid that many of the 
residents in China, especially the younger and less experienced 
of their number, as well as those engaged in the opium trade 
whether old or young, have often been active promoters of hostil- 
ities with that empire. As a rule the Chinese are not a people 
who attract much sympathy from those who live among them. 
How could it be otherwise, when they feel no sympathy for 
others? 'Like begets like.' But it is very short-sighted and 
unphilosophical conduct to try to cure this ungenial character- 
istic of a people by violence and injustice, which can only in- 
crease the feeling of alienation and repugnance. Yet this is the 
receipt invariably prescribed in our intercourse with the Chinese 
as a cure for their insolence, by the young merchants; for Sir 
George Bonham, the former Governor of Hong Kong, draws 
a distinction between the conduct of the old and substantial 
houses and the younger residents ; the latter are always for 
' pitching into the Celestials ' by way of making them more civil. 
By the way, I am afraid the prospect of a sudden increase of 
trade, which always follows a war expenditure for a time, is not 
without its influence on these young houses, to say nothing of 
the enormous profits which have been made out of the claims for 
compensation for losses of property incurred during the war. 
Now none of these motives can have any sway with the mer- 
chants and manufacturers of Lancashire, who are the parties prin- 
cipally interested in a permanent trade with China. All they can 
desire is that the duties shall be moderate, the trade regular, and 
that facilities shall be afforded at the ports of entry for the quick 



JSt. 57.] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 567 

despatch of business. All these conditions exist in China to as 
great an extent as in any other considerable maritime states. In- 
deed, comparing our trade with China with that with our own 
possessions in India, it seems likely that the duties payable in 
the former will soon be the lighter of the two ! Now all this 
leads me to press on you and the other members of the Man- 
chester Chamber of Commerce to take some step for the pro- 
tection of your interests against the risk of future collisions 
and wars in that country. The only way of accomplishing this 
is by discouraging the British Government from entering into 
closer diplomatic relations, or forcing on that country a resident 
Ambassador at Pekin, or seeking for free access for our country- 
men to the interior of that empire. The last is a very plausible 
but most perilous situation. The idea of Englishmen ' opening up 
a trade' in the interior of China commends itself strongly to those 
who do not know how commerce is carried on. But any one 
acquainted with the trade of Eussia or other countries in a low 
state of civilization, and speaking a peculiar and difficult lan- 
guage, knows that it is impossible for foreigners to carry on the 
interior trade of those countries. It must all be left to natives. 
There is a proposal for carrying our productions in English ships 
up the great arterial river of that country into the interior. Now 
this would be totally at variance with all international law, unless 
the trade were confined to some one or more ports of entry to be 
agreed upon. But once let an English trading steamer find itself 
500 or 1000 miles in the interior of China, and how could you 
hope to prevent irregular trade taking place, to be followed by 
constant collisions with local authorities, who would, no doubt, 
be exposed to a system of bribery by which the smuggler would 
only supersede the regular trader at the ports ? Even the stipu- 
lation for foreigners to be allowed to penetrate into the country 
by means of passports is, in my opinion, a policy of very doubt- 
ful wisdom. Missionaries will then, no doubt, avail themselves 
of the facility for travelling in safety into the country. I have 
the most profound veneration for those, who, like St. Paul, preach 
the gospel at their own risk, trusting for their safety solely to the 
purity of their motives and the overruling protection of God. 
But it is different when a missionary goes forth with all the force 
of a powerful Government at his back ; in such a case he is likely 
to do far more injury than service to the cause of Christianity. 
The present war, so far as the French are concerned, arose out of 
the alleged murder of a Roman Catholic priest in China ; and if 
missionaries are to travel through that country with passports, 
it will, I fear, lead to as many wars as conversions. There is 
another point to be considered. Our cruisers on the coast of 
China are frequently capturing or destroying junks, on the plea 



568 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

that they are pirates. There is a bad practice of paying head- 
money for these pirates, taken or destroyed. I think there is a 
wanton destruction of life sometimes committed without suffi- 
cient proof of the character of the parties. In my opinion we 
ought not to undertake to perform the duties of police on the 
coast, unless to protect our oivn vessels, or at least those of Euro- 
peanorigin. In this respect we ought to follow the example of 
United States cruisers — watch over the security of national 
property, leave the Chinese to protect their own shipping. The 
truth is, our opium smugglers and our wars with the Government 
of China lead to a state of carelessness on the coast, and we then 
step in to preserve the peace in Chinese waters, in consequence of 
the impotence of the authorities to perform the duties of police." 

On Lord Brougham. 

" Miclhurst, August 21, 1861. {To M. Chevalier.) — I have read 
with much pleasure your address to the Social Science Meeting at 
Dublin. If you have a corrected copy in French, let me have 
one. I was amused at your diplomacy in comparing Brougham 
to Cicero. This must have delighted him. He has, I suspect, 
always had the great Roman in his eye, and has sought to imitate 
him in the universality of his accomplishments. But it was one 
thing to be universal 1900 years ago, and is another thing now. 
A Bolton mechanic who makes a steam-engine, or one who drives 
a locomotive on our railways, knows more in his special calling 
than either Cicero or Brougham. It is this attempt at universality 
which has been the great error and failing of Lord B.'s public 
life. He has touched everything and finished nothing. Had he 
given his vast powers to one thing at a time, he might have codi- 
fied our laws, and endowed every village with a good school, be- 
sides leaving nothing for me to do in Free Trade. But he made 
a speech for five hours on Law Reform forty years ago nearly, and 
another as long on National Education, and then he left those 
questions for something else. The result will be that in fifty 
years he will be remembered only for his herculean mental pow- 
ers, and his unrivalled intellectual industry, but his name will not 
be specially associated with any reforms for which posterity will 
hold him in grateful remembrance." l 

1 Brougham, as has been seen, had been very unfriendly to the League (see above, 
pp. 175, 176). For many years there was no communication between him and Mr. 
Bright. With Cobden he kept up an occasional correspondence, and in 1856, 
when Mr. Bright was ill, Brougham, says Cobden in a letter of that date, "wrote 
to me speaking in the most affectionate terms of Bright, and offering him the use 
of his house at Cannes. I sent the letter to Bright, who of course met his ad- 
vances with open arms, and they have been exchanging great civilities. He seems 
anxious to heal all his ancient enmities. Could a better use be made of his de- 
clining years ? " — To G. Mojjatt, June i, 1856. 



JET.-57-] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 569 

Inconvenience of a Sectarian Organ; 

" Midhurst, October 17, 1861. (To S. Lucas.) — I said in one of 
my notes to you that the Star should not appear the organ of a 
sect. I will give you an illustration a propos of this remark. In 
an otherwise excellent, and tolerant article on Lord John yester- 
day, you bring in Bright and myself at the close to sting him by 
our contrast. This is the kind of remark which stamps your paper 
as the organ of a strait sect which tolerates nothing but what comes 
from your own preachers. You remember the anecdote I gave you 
of a person I travelled with in the railway carriage from Guildford 
to London, when he bought the Telegraph and I the Star. He 
remarked, ' I don't like the Star, it is so intolerant ; it never ad- 
mits anybody to be right but Bright and Cobden.' I should like 
to make a bargain with you in the interest of your paper, not to 
let my name appear in your leaders (unless to find fault with me) 
for two years." 

Tocqueville on the Right of Secession. 

"June 22, 1861. (To W. Har -greaves, Esq.) — I am glad to see 
that as yet there is no serious fighting in America. Until there 
has been a bloody collision one may hope there will be none. I 
have been reading Tocqueville's Democracy in Am.erica. In his 
chapter on the influence of slavery his sagacity is, as it frequently 
is, quite prophetic. He seems to regard it as the chief danger to 
the Union, less from the rival interests it creates, than from the 
incompatibility of manners which it produces. It is singular too 
that he takes the Southern view of the right of secession. He 
says, ' The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the 
States ; and in uniting together they have not forfeited their 
nationality, nor have they been reduced to one and the same peo- 
ple. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the 
contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so ; 
and the Federal Government would have no means of maintain- 
ing its claims either by force or by right.' He then goes on to 
argue that among the States united by the Federal tie there may 
be some which have a great interest in maintaining the Union 
on which their prosperity depends ; and he then remarks, ' Great 
things may then be done in the name of the Federal Government, 
but in reality that Government will have ceased to exist.' Has 
he not accurately anticipated both the fact and the motive of the 
present attitude of the State of New York ? Is it not commercial 
gain and mercantile ascendency which prompt their warlike zeal 
for the Federal Government ? At all events, it is a little unrea- 
sonable in the New York politicians to require us to treat the 



570 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

South as rebels, in the face of the opinion of our highest European 
authority as to the right of secession." 



The Trent Affair. 

" Midhurst, Bee. 3, 1861. (To Lieut.-Col. Fitzmayer.) — . . . . 
In reference to our latest complication with the United States, it 
is, I hope, possible the Government at Washington may disavow 
the act of their officer. 1 If not, it will I expect be nothing more 
than a diplomatic and legal wrangle. I think, however, the Amer- 
ican Government are very foolish to take such a course. I confess 
I have not much opinion of Seward. He is a kind of American 
Thiers or Palmerston or Eussell — that talks to Bunkum. Fortu- 
nately, my friend Mr. Charles Sumner, who is Chairman of the 
Senate Committee on Foreign Eelations, and has really a kind of 
veto on the acts of Seward, is a very peaceable and- safe man. 

" I look upon it as quite impossible that the North in addition 
to their life and death struggle at home can desire a rupture with 
this country. It is to assume that they are mad. Doubtless 
there are plenty of Irish and plenty of Southern sympathizers in 
the Northern States who would be delighted with a war with 
England. But ninety-nine hundredths of the honest citizens of 
the North must above all things desire to avoid a quarrel with us 
at the present moment, and they will I fear only interpret our 
accusation of a contrary design as a proof that we wish to pick a 
quarrel with them. 

"Nothing is more clear to me than that the world is under- 
rating in this struggle the power of the North. I have paid two 
visits to that country at an interval of twenty-four years between 
the first and second trip. I do not believe anybody without two 
such visits can form an idea of the power and resources and the 
rapid town growth of that people. As for the Slave States I look 
upon them as doomed in any case to decay and almost barbarism. 
If Christianity is to survive, there can be no future for slavery. 
But those Free States where slavery is prohibited will in all human 
probability contain more than one hundred millions of people in 
the lifetime of persons now born. Is it wise with us who have 
an India, as they have their slaves, to give cause to that great 
future nation to remember with feelings of hatred and revenge 
our successors to remote generations ? Ought not we most care- 

1 Messrs. Slidell and Mason, two Commissioners from the Confederate States to 
Europe, were passengers on board the West India mail steamer Trent. Captain 
Wilkes, of the United States war-vessel San Jacinto, stopped the Trent b} r firing a 
shot across her bows, took the Commissioners forcibty out of her, and sailed away 
with them (Nov. 8). After an interchange of correspondence between Lord Russell 
and Mr. Seward, and the despatch of British troops to Halifax, the men were given 
up, and reached England on January 29. (See Irving' s Annals, p. 614.) 



Mt. 57.] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 571 

fully and generously to guard ourselves against the possibility of 
being shown hereafter to have taken advantage of the North in 
the hour of its trial ? 

" Upon the whole I do not complain of our Government, nor do 
I think the Americans can fully charge us as a nation with hav- 
ing failed to bear with fortitude and temper the great suffering 
the civil war has inflicted on our cotton trade. It is true we have 
our Times as the Americans have their Herald, and the twin in- 
cendiaries may pair off together." 

" Midhurst, Dec. 6, 1861. {To Mr. Bright) — Your admirable 
address cannot fail to do good. 1 But it is a mad world we live 
in ! Here am I in the midst of extracts from Hansard, &c, to 
show up the folly or worse of the men who have been putting us 
to millions of expense to protect us from a coup de main from 
France, and now we see the same people willing to rush into war 
with America, and leave us exposed to this crafty and dangerous 
neighbor ! Might we not be justified in turning hermits, letting 
our beards grow, and returning to our caves ! . . . . 

" Has it occurred to you that this war is now nearly a year old, 
and the South has rather gained than receded on the Potomac, 
having stopped the navigation to the Federal capital ? How long- 
will foreign powers look on if nothing decisive be done ? I doubt 
whether another year's blockade will be borne by the world. 
What say you ? If you agree, you should let Sumner know. My 
own conviction is that if there is to be no early compromise and 
settlement between North and South, and if the North do not 
voluntarily raise the blockade, there will next year be an inter- 
vention in some shape. A Bordeaux merchant came here to me 
a few days ago. He says the export of wine and spirits from that 
port to New Orleans was 30,000 tuns per annum, which is cut off 
to a gallon. He says also that their trade in liquors and fruits 
with New York, &c, is nearly destroyed by the Morrill tariff. 
He tells me the feeling is very bitter in France, and that the Em- 
peror would be supported if he were to join England in breaking 
up the blookade. France has a far greater stake in the export 
trade to the South than England, owing to her old connection 
with New Orleans." 

"Midhurst, Dec, 14, 1861. {To M. Chevalier) — There is con- 
siderable reaction in the public mind, I think, on the American 
question. Some large public meetings have passed resolutions in 
favor of arbitration ; and the religious congregations have been 
also making demonstrations for peace, I expect the Americans 
will propose either to restore the status quo, and let the United 
States Admiralty Courts decide, or else refer to arbitration. I 

1 Mr. Bright spoke on the Trent Affair and on the American War generally, at 
Rochdale, December 4, 1861. — Speeches, i. 167. 



572 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

hope the Emperor will offer his mediation if an opportunity oc- 
curs. Neither party will be in the humor to refuse. It is high 
time that we had a revision of these so-called international mari- 
time laws. They are merely traps laid for nations to fall into 
wars. I do not believe in a war. Palmerston likes to drive the 
wheel close to the edge, and show how dexterously he can avoid 
falling over the precipice. Meantime he keeps people's attention 
employed, which suits him politically. But I hope this game is 
nearly played out. I am quite sick of it." 

"Jan., 1862. (To Mr. Paulton) — Palmerston ought to be 
turned out for the reckless expense to which he has put us. 
He and his colleagues knew there could be no war. From the 
moment they were informed of the course France, Prussia, and 
Austria were taking in giving us their moral support (and they 
knew this early in December), a war was, as they knew, impos- 
sible. Then came Seward's despatch to Adams on the 19th De- 
cember, which virtually settled the matter. To keep alive the 
wicked passions in this country as Palmerston and his Post did, 
was like the man, and that is the worst that can be said of it. 

" I can't see my way through the American business. I don't 
believe the North and South can ever lie in the same bed again. 
Nor do I see how the military operations can be carried into the 
South, so as to inflict a crushing defeat. Unless something of the 
kind takes place I predict that Europe will recognize the inde- 
pendence of the South. I tell Sumner this, and tell him that 
his only chance if he wants time to fight it out is to raise the 
blockade of the Mississippi voluntarily, and then Europe might 
look on. 

" But our friend Bright will not hear of anything against the 
claims of the North. I admire his pluck, for when he goes with 
a side it is always to win. I tell him that it is possible to wish 
well to a cause without being sure that it will be successful. 
However, he will soon find in the House that we shall be on this 
question as we were on China, Crimean, and Greek Pacifico wars, 
quite in a minority ! There is no harm in that if you are right, 
but it is useless to deceive ourselves about the issue. Three 
fourths of the House will be glad to find an excuse for voting for 
the dismemberment of the great Eepublic." 

"Nov. 29, 1861. (To Mr. Charles Sumner) — I hear that the 
law officers of the Crown have decided that you are not within 
the law in what has been done. I leave your lawyers to answer 
ours. The question of legality in matters of international law 
has never been very easily settled. However, the only danger to 
the peace of the two countries is in the temper which may grow 
out of this very trivial incident. The Press will, as usual, try to 
envenom the affair. It is for us and all who care for the interests 



^t. 57.] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 573 

of humanity, to do our utmost to thwart these mischief-makers. 
You may reckon on Bright, myself, and all our friends being alert 
and active in this good work, and we reckon on the co-operation 
of yourself and all who sympathize with you. Though I said in 
my other letter that I shall never care to utter a word about the 
merits of a war after it has begun, I do not the less feel it my 
duty to try to prevent hostilities occurring. Let me here remark 
that I cannot understand how you should have thought it worth 
your while at Washington to have reopened this question of the 
right of search, by claiming to exercise it in a doubtful case and a 
doubtful manner, under circumstances which could be of so little 
advantage, and to have incurred the risk of greater disadvantages. 
The capture of Mason and Slidell can have little effect in discour- 
aging the South, compared with the indirect encouragement and 
hope it may hold out to them of embroiling your Government 
with England. I am speaking with reference to the policy, and 
leaving out of sight the law of the case. But in the latter view 
we are rather unprepared to find you exercising in a strained 
manner the right of search, inasmuch as you have been supposed 
to be always the opponents of the practice. I was under the 
impression that our Government was told pretty plainly at the 
outbreak of the Crimean War that it would be risking the peace 
of this country with yours if we claimed the right of search in 
the open sea. I am not in a position to know how far this was 
the case. Can you tell me if there be any documents on the 
subject ? If it were so, we should, of course, all unite in holding 
you to your own doctrine. 

"P. S. — Since writing the accompanying, we have the details of 
the capture of Mason and Slidell in our packet vessel. You may 
be right in point of law, though, perhaps, in technical strictness, 
the lawyers may pick a hole. Brit I am satisfied yon are wrong 
in 'point of policy. There is an impression, I know, in high quar- 
ters here, that Mr. Seward wishes to quarrel with this country. 
This seems absurd enough. I confess I have as little confidence 
in him as I have in Lord Palmerston. Both will consult Bunkum 
for the moment, without much regard, I fear, for the future. You 
must not lose sight of this view of the relations of the two coun- 
tries. Formerly England feared a war with the United States as 
much from the dependence on your cotton as from a dread of 
your power. Now the popular opinion (however erroneous) is 
that a war would give us cotton. And we, of course, consider 
your power weakened by your civil war. I speak as a friend of 
peace, and not as a partisan of my own country, in wishing you 
to bear this in mind." 

"Dec. 6, 1861. — Since writing my letter of yesterday's date, I 
have read General Scott's admirable letter. It contains a passage 



574 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1861. 

to the following effect : ' I am sure that the President and people 
of the United States would be but too happy to let these men go 
free, unnatural and unpardonable as their offences have been, if 
by it they could emancipate the commerce of the world. Greatly 
as it would be to our disadvantage at this present crisis to sur- 
render any of those maritime privileges of belligerents which are 
sanctioned by the laws of nations, I feel that I take no responsi- 
bility in saying that the United States will be faithful to her tra- 
ditional policy upon this subject, and to the spirit of her political 
institutions.' " 

"Dec. 12, 1861. — The Times and its yelping imitators are still 
doing their worst, but there is a powerful moderate party. I 
hope you will offer promptly to arbitrate the question. There is 
one point on which you must absolutely define your platform. 
You must acknowledge the South as belligerents to give you a 
standing ground on the Trent affair. Some of your newspapers 
argue that you have a right to carry off a rebel from an English 
vessel, which means that Austria might have seized Kossuth 
under similar circumstances. Were you to take such ground, 
there would be war." 

"Dec. 19, 1861. — Everybody tells me that war is inevitable, 
and yet I do not believe in war. But it must be admitted that 
there are things said and done on your side that make it very 
difficult for the advocates of peace on this side to keep the field. 
We can get over the sayings of your Herald, that ' France will 
not and England dare not go to war.' Your newspapers will not 
drive us into war. But when grave men (or men that should 
be grave), holding the highest posts in your cultivated State of 
Massachusetts, compliment Captain Wilkes for having given an 
affront to the British lion, it makes it very hard for Bright and 
me to contend against the ' British lion party ' in this country. 
All I can say is that I hope you have taken Bright's advice and 
offered unconditional arbitration. With that offer publicly made, 
the friends of peace could prevent our fire-eaters from assaulting 
you, always providing that your public speakers do not put it out 
of our power to keep the peace. I was sorry to see a report of an 
anti-English speech by your colleague at New York. Honestly 
speaking, and with no blind patriotism to mislead me, I don't 
think the nation here behaved badly under the terrible evil of 
loss of trade and danger of starving under your blockade. Of 
course all privileged classes and aristocracies hate your institu- 
tions — that is natural enough ; but the mass of the people never 
weut with the South. I am not pleased with your project of 
sinking stones to block up ports ! That is barbarism. It is quite 
natural that, smarting as you do under an unprovoked aggression 
from the slave-owners, you should even be willing to smother 



Mr. 57.] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 575 

them like hornets in their nest. But don't forget the outside 
world, and especially don't forget that the millions in Europe are 
more interested even than their princes in preserving the future 
commerce with the vast region of the Confederate States." 

"Jan. 23, 1862. — It is, perhaps, well that you settled the 
matter of sending away the men at once. Consistently with your 
own principles, you could not have justified their detention. But 
it is right you should know that there was a great reaction going 
on through this country against the diabolical tone of the Times 
and Post. (I suspect stockjobbing in these quarters.) The cry 
of arbitration had been raised and responded to, and I was glad 
to see the religious people once more in the field in favor of peace. 
Be assured, if you had offered to refer the question to arbitration, 
there could not have been a meeting called in England that would 
not have indorsed it. The only question was whether we ought 
to be the first to .offer arbitration. I mean this was the only 
doubt in the popular mind. As regards our Government, they 
are, of course, feeling the tendency of public opinion. A friend 
of mine in London, a little behind the scenes, wrote to me : — 
' They are busy at the Foreign Office hunting up precedents for 
arbitration, very much against their will.' I write all this be- 
cause I wish you to know that we are not quite so bad as appeared 
at first on the surface." 

In the same letter, after arguing for the raising of the blockade 
by the North, he says : — 

" All the reflection I have been able to give the subject confirms 
me in the view I expressed in my former letter. Propose to 
Europe a clean sweep of the old maritime law of Vattel, Puffen- 
dorf, and Co. ; abolish blockades of commercial ports on the 
ground laid down in Cass's despatch which you sent. Get rid of 
the right of search in time of war as in time of peace, and make 
private property exempt from capture by armed vessels of every 
kind, whether government vessels or privateers. And, as an 
earnest of your policy, offer to apply the doctrine in your present 
war. You would instantly gain France and all the continent of 
Europe to your side. You would enlist a party in England that 
can always control our governing class when there is a sufficient 
motive for action ; and you acquire such a moral position that no 
power would dream of laying hands on you. I think I told you 
that all our commercial and trading community have already 
pronounced in favor of exempting private property from capture 
by government ships, as first proposed by Mr. Marcy. In the 
ensuing session of Parliament I intend to make a speech on the 
subject of maritime law, in which I will undertake to prove that 
we, above all other countries, are interested in carrying out all 
the above three propositions of reform. With the exception of 



576 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1862. 

the aristocratic classes, who have an instinctive leaning for any 
policy which furnishes excuses for large naval and military estab- 
lishments, everybody will be favorable to the change." 



Maritime Law. 

" Midhurst, Feb. 2. (To A. W. Paulton.) — I hope to see you 
on "Wednesday evening. I have an idea (about which we can 
talk) of occupying ground in the House upon the subject of rights 
of neutrals by giving notice early of something of this kind : 
' That in the opinion of the House the questions affecting belli- 
gerent rights and the rights of neutrals are in an unsatisfactory 
state, and demand the early attention of her Majesty's Govern- 
ment/ 

" A Committee on Shipping in 1860 reported in favor of adopt- 
ing Marcy's plan of exempting private property altogether from 
capture by Government ships as well as privateers, but nothing 
was clone. 

" Now, I think such a motion must be agreed to, because all 
parties are dissatisfied with matters as they were left at Paris in 
1856. In my speech I should advocate : — 

" 1st. The making of private property sacred from capture by 
armed ships of all kinds. 

" 2d. Exempting neutral ships from search or visitation in 
time of war as in time of peace. 

" 3d. The abolition of blockade of commercial ports or coast 
lines. 

" I could make it clear that England is beyond all countries 
interested in carrying out these points. 

" Have you been reading anything about International Law ? 
If so, give me the benefit of your observations. What I shall 
want is standing ground to show the absolute necessity for a 
change. Are there not great discrepancies between Lord John's 
present doctrines and our former supposed principles ? For in- 
stance, I thought all our authorities, including Phillim ore's last 
book, agreed that a belligerent could take a neutral ship anywhere, 
and carry her into port for adjudication." 



The Commercial Class. 

" Feb. 7, 1862. (To Mr. Henry Ashworth) — I am quite happy 
to see you at the head of the Chamber of Commerce. With many 
faults and shortcomings, our mercantile and manufacturing classes 
as represented in the Chambers of Commerce are after all the 
only power in the State possessed of wealth and political influ- 



JIt. 58.] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 577 

ence sufficient to counteract in some degree the feudal governing 
class of this country. They are, indeed, the only class from whom 
we can in our time hope for any further beneficial changes. 

" It is true they are often timid and servile in their conduct 
towards the aristocracy, and we must wink at their weaknesses if 
we are to keep them political company. But there is always this 
encouragement to hope better things — that they have no interest 
opposed to the general good, whilst, on the contrary, the feudal 
governing class exists only by the violation of sound principles of 
political economy, and therefore the very institution is hostile to 
the interests of the masses. 

" I wish we could inspire the mercantile manufacturing com- 
munity with a little more self-respect. The future of England 
must depend on them, for, as Deacon Hume said twenty years 
ago, we have long passed the time when the prosperity of this 
country depended on its land, and yet how little share this all- 
important interest claims in the government of the country." 



Maritime Law in the House of Commons. 

"Feb. 14, 1862. (To M. Chevalier).— I have not yet secured 
an evening for my motion. We have to ballot for the first chance, 
and there are always a good many candidates at the commence- 
ment of the session. I intend to move the resolution on the other 
side. If this be affirmed by the House, as I have no doubt it will 
be, the government will be obliged to take some steps in the 
matter, and when once they begin, I defy them to stop without 
completing my programme. 

" P. S. — Mr. Cobden to move : — 

That the present state of international maritime law, as affecting the rights 
of belligerents and neutrals, is ill-defined and unsatisfactory, and calls for the 
attention of her Majesty's Government. 

" But I fear it will be some weeks before I can secure an even- 
ing" 

" March 4. ( „ ) — After I had given notice of my motion in 
the House, Mr. Horsfall, the Tory M. P. for Liverpool, complained 
that I was poaching on his domain, as he had announced his inten- 
tion in the previous session to bring the subject of maritime law 
before Parliament. On referring back to the proceedings of last 
year, I found he was correct, and as it is a sort of etiquette in the 
House not to encroach on each other's territory, I yielded at once, 
Mr. Horsfall has adopted my exact words, and I shall second his 
motion. The debate stands for next Tuesday, the 11th. I am very 
well satisfied that Mr. Horsfall originates the motion, as it will 

37 



578 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1862. 

give a better chance of success, the Tories being less likely to op- 
pose one of their own party than me. By the way, Lindsay says 
lie thinks there is now a majority in the House in favor of ex- 
empting private property from capture. The question respecting 
blockades is quite new, but with a little discussion we shall carry 
that point ; and I am still convinced that, if the Emperor will 
propose the three points which I quoted in a former letter, we can 
compel our government very shortly to acquiesce." 

"March 17. ( „ ) — In all my political life I have never suf- 
fered a more vexatious disappointment than in being prevented 
from speaking last Monday. I had taken great trouble to pre- 
pare, and should have had a good opportunity of being universally 
read in the papers, for much attention has been called to my in- 
tention to speak. But I was seized with a sudden hoarseness 
arising from a cold, and on Monday was unable to articulate. The 
consequence was that the debate to my mind was kept to too nar- 
row a basis. However, enough was said and admitted on all sides 
to prove that we cannot remain where we are, and as nobody seri- 
ously proposes to go back, it is quite clear we must go forward. 
I am convinced that the result will be, after the usual agitation 
out of doors, that public opinion in England will pronounce for a 
complete revolution in the maritime law. We have more to gain 
than any other people from the complete removal of all restric- 
tions on freedom of commerce, whether in time of peace or war. 
But we have our battle to fight as usual with our own feudal 
governing class. I am writing this in my bedroom, and cannot, 
therefore, say much. As respects the postage question, I will not 
lose sight of it." 1 

" Athenmum, London, March 13. ( „ ) — You will see that 
we are in the midst of a debate on the maritime law, and you may 
have remarked that Palmerston has seized the opportunity before 
the discussion was over to declare his opposition to the change 
affecting private property of belligerents at sea. I am not sur- 
prised at this ; for a man of seventy-seven, whose ideas are stere- 
otyped on the model of half a century ago, is not likely to favor 
any measure in harmony with the age in which we live. But I 
am not the less certain that these changes in maritime law to 
which I alluded before, will be adopted by this country. It takes 
time with us English people to make up our minds, but when 
great material interests can be appealed to on the side of principles 
of freedom and humanity, the eventual result in this country is 
not doubtful. It is a terrible evil to find ourselves with an old 
man of seventy-seven at our head, and I am more and more con- 

1 The debate was resumed on March 17 by Mr. Lindsay, who began by express- 
ing a hope that Cobden would be able to speak before the end of the evening. His 
hoarseness, however, remained intractable, and Mr. Bright spoke instead. 



Mi. 58.] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 579- 

vinced that any change from this state of things will be an ad- 
vantage." 

Lord Palmerston. 

" Midhurst, August 7, 1862. (To Mr. Hargreaves) — I have 
found your letter on coming here. If Bright could have been 
by my side during the last six weeks of the Session I think we 
could have silenced Palmerston. He had laid himself open to 
attack, and the events of the Session had made him very vulner- 
able. However, I hope I have spoilt his game as a popular dem- 
agogue a little for the recess. But he has a terrible run of good 
luck ; and then I am afraid of the tricks he may be allowed by 
his obsequious colleagues to play before we meet again. Nothing 
could be so unfavorable to the public interest as the present state 
of parties. Palmerston is spending many millions more than the 
Tories would dream of spending. He pampers the ' services ' to 
such a degree that they draw off all opposition from Dizzy's party, 
so that there is no check on anything he does. There was liter- 
ally no opposition last Session. Then Gladstone lends his genius 
to all sorts of expenditure which he disapproves, and devises 
schemes for raising money which nobody else would think of. 
Thus he gets the funds for fortifications by a system of loans, 
which tends to keep the waste out of the annual accounts. If 
the money had to be raised out of the taxes, we could resist it. 
In the same spirit he goes into China wars, and keeps a Dr. and 
Cr. account, deluding himself and the public with the idea that 
these wars are at the expense of the Chinese, whereas for every 
million we get from that country we spend at least as much in 
increased cost of establishments there ; and it seems more and 
more doubtful whether much more will be got on any terms. How 
we are to accomplish the change I know not, but it would be a 
great gain to the public if we could carry the Liberals to the 
Opposition side of the House. It seems as if the Tories were 
determined not to let their leaders into office. They are too well 
satisfied with things as they are. Well they may be ! " 



Commercial Blockades. 

" August 7, 1862. (To M. Chevalier?) — Our Government, as 
you know, is constantly declaring that we have the greatest inter- 
est in maintaining the old system of belligerent rights. Lord 
Eussell considers that we must preserve the right of blockade as 
a most valuable privilege for ourselves on some future occasion, 
and you will see that almost the very last words uttered by Lord 
Palmerston at the close of the Session were to assert the ^reat 



580 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1862. 

interest England had in maintaining these old belligerent rights. 
In fact we are governed by men whose ideas have made no pro- 
gress since 1808, — nay, they cling to the ideas of the middle 
ages ! " 

" Manchester, Oct. 25, 1862. ( „ ) — England cannot take a 
step with decency or consistency, to put an end to the blockade, 
until our Government is prepared to give in their adhesion to 
the principle of the abolition of commercial blockades for the 
future. This our antiquated Palmerstons and Eussells are not 
willing to do. They have a sincere faith in the efficacy of com- 
mercial blockades as a belligerent weapon against our enemies. 
They are ignorant that it is a two-edged sword, which cuts the 
hand that wields it — when that hand is England — more than 
the object which it strikes. Lords Palmerston and Eussell feel 
bound to acquiesce in the blockade, and even to find excuses for 
it, because they wish to preserve the right for us of blockading 
some other power. 

" I am against any act of violence to put an end to the war. 
We should not thereby obtain cotton, nor should we coerce the 
North. "We should only intensify the animosity between the two 
sections. But I should be glad to see an appeal made by all 
Europe to the North to put an end to the blockade of the South 
against legitimate commerce, on the ground of humanity, accom- 
panied with the offer of making the abolition of commercial 
blockades the principle of international law for the future. But 
this, I repeat, our own Government will not agree to at present. 
We have a battle to fight against our own ruling class in England 
to accomplish this reform. I am by no means so sure as Glad- 
stone that the South will ever be a nation. It depends on the 
' Great West.' If Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wis- 
consin, and Minnesota sustain the President's anti- slavery procla- 
mation, there will be no peace which will leave the mouth of 
the Mississippi in the hands of an independent power. A few 
days will tell us how these elections will go." 

The Cotton Famine. 

"Nov. 6, 1862. {To Lady Lfatherton.) — Few people can realize 
the appalling state of things in this neighborhood. Imagine that 
the iron, stone, and coal were suddenly withheld from Stafford- 
shire, and it gives you but an imperfect idea of what Lancashire, 
with its much larger population, is suffering from the want of 
cotton ; it reverses the condition of the richest county in the 
kingdom, and makes it the poorest. A capitalist with 20,000Z. 
invested in buildings and machinery, may be almost on a par 
with his operatives in destitution, if he be deprived of the raw 



^1t. 58.] INTERNATIONAL LAW. 581 

material which alone makes his capital productive. Bad as is the 
state of things, I fear we are only at its commencement, and un- 
happily the winter is upon us to aggravate the sufferings of the 
working people. The evil is spreading through all classes. The 
first effects will be felt on the small shopkeepers ; the weak mill- 
owners will come next. I. met a magistrate yesterday from Old- 
ham, and he told me that at the last meeting of the Bench four 
thousand assessments were exempted from payment of poor rates 
on the plea of inability of the parties to pay ! How rapidly this 
must aggravate the pressure on the remainder of the property of 
the Union ! There will be another meeting of the Manchester 
Committee next Monday, at which it will be proposed to extend 
it to a National Committee, and the Queen will be solicited as 
Duchess of Lancaster to allow her name to appear as its patron. 
An energetic effort will then be made to cover the whole king- 
dom with local committees, and then institute a general canvass 
for subscriptions. By this means we may keep matters in toler- 
able order till Parliament meets, but there is a growing opinion 
that we shall have to apply to Parliament for imperial aid. 
People at a distance, who learn that the poor rates in Lancashire 
are even now less than they are in ordinary times in the agricul- 
tural districts, cannot understand this helplessness and destitu- 
tion. They do not perceive how exceptional this state of things is. 
Lancashire, with its machinery stopped, is like a man in a faint- 
ing fit. It would be as rational to attempt to draw money from 
the one as blood from the other. Or it may be compared to 
a strong man suddenly struck with paralysis; until the use of 
his limbs and muscles be restored to him, it is useless to tell him 
to help himself." 

Debate on Turkey. 

" London, June 2, 1863. ( „ ) — We had a debate in the 
House on the Turkish question last Friday, a propos of the bom- 
bardment of Belgrade by the Turks. 1 I took a part, and send 
you enclosed an extract from my speech, in which I alluded to 
the policy which ought to be pursued in the East on the part of 

1 When Servia acquired what was practically her independence, Belgrade was 
one of five fortresses which the Turks continued to occupy. In the summer of 1862 
an affray, such as was frequent enough, took place between some Servian citizens 
in Belgrade, and some soldiers of the Turkish garrison in the citadel. The Turkish 
Pasha proceeded to bombard the town, and European diplomacy was once more 
stirred by the relations between Turkey and her dependencies. In the debate in 
the House of Commons, May 29, 1863, Mr Layard made an elaborate defence of 
the condition and prospects of the Turkish Government. Cobden replied in a par- 
ticularly able statement of the case against Turkey and the traditional policy of the 
British Foreign Office. To this Mr. Gladstone * replied in turn, not taking Mr. 
Layard's line, but rather deprecating "a general crusade against Turkey," and hop- 
ing for the best. — Hansard, clxxi. p. 126, etc. 



582 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

France and England. As you will see, the doctrine, though 
somewhat new to the House, was very well received. I was very 
much struck with the altered feeling towards the Turks. They 
have not a friend, except Palmerston and his partial imitator, 
Layard. Palmerston was absent from the debate owing to a 
slight attack of gout. Gladstone was obliged to speak in reply 
to me, but he did it with evident reluctance. There will be no 
more Crimean wars for us in defence of the Turks. Should a 
Slavonic or Hellenic Garibaldi arise to wage war with the Otto- 
man oppressor, British public opinion will instantly leap to his 
side, and then our Foreign Office will instantly turn its back upon 
its old traditions, as it did in the case of Italy. There is no 
demagogue like our high officials for nattering and bowing to the 
popular passion of the hour ! " 



The Polish Insurrection. 

" June 22, 1863. ( „ ) — My dear friend, I do not under- 
stand what good can come from an interference by force of arms 
in the Polish business. 1 I can see how very great injury could 
arise to ourselves. We draw food for two or three millions of our 
people yearly from Eussia. If your nation goes into such a war, 
it will of course be with the hope of getting some extension of 
territory out of the squabble. That would no doubt be the case. 
Germany would fall into coufusion, and another ' confederation ' 
would arise, in which France would of course have a voice, and 
her good will must be propitiated by a concession on the Ehine. 
To this / have no objection. But our Foreign Office would go 
into convulsions at such an audacious rupture of its cherished 
traditions. Then as we are not in want of further territory, and 
could not therefore share in the spoil, the danger is that we 
should quarrel with you. I hope the chimerical scheme will not 
be persevered in." 

The American War. 

" July 11, 1862. {To Mr. Sumner.) — It is a long time since I 
wrote to you. Indeed, to confess the truth, it is a painful task for 
me to keep up my correspondence with my American friends. But 
I have not been a less anxious observer of the events which have 
passed on your side. I shall now best serve the interests of hu- 

1 In the beginning of 1863, in consequence of the shameless 'brutality of the 
Russian conscription, an insurrection had broken out in Poland. The Emperor of 
the French proposed that our Government should join him in remonstrating with 
Prussia for aiding Russia. Lord Palmerston, however, for once took Cobden's 
view, and "declined to fall into the trap." 



JIt.59.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 583 

manity by telling you frankly the state and progress of opinion 
here. There is an all but unanimous belief that you cannot subject 
the South to the Union. Even they who are your partisans and 
advocates cannot see their way to any such issue. It is necessary 
that you should understand that this opinion is so widely and 
honestly entertained, because it is the key to the expression of 
views which might otherwise not be quite intelligible. Among 
some of the governing class in Europe the wish is father to this 
thought. But it is not so with the mass of the people. Nor is it 
so with our own Government entirely. I know that Gladstone 
would restore your Union to-morrow if he could ; yet he has 
steadily maintained from the first that, unless there was a strong 
Union sentiment, it is impossible that the South can be subdued. 
Now the belief is all but universal that there is no Union feeling 
in the South ; and this is founded latterly upon the fact that no 
cotton comes from New Orleans. It is said that if the instinct 
of gain, with cotton at double its usual price, do not induce the 
people to sell, it is a proof beyond dispute that the political re- 
sentment is overwhelming and unconquerable." 

"Feb. 13, 1863. (To Mr. Sumner.) — If I have not written to 
you before, it is not because I have been indifferent to what is 
passing in your midst. I may say sincerely that my thoughts have 
been almost as much on American as on English politics. But I 
could do you no service, and shrank from occupying your over- 
taxed attention, even for a moment. My object in now writing is 
to speak of a matter which has a practical bearing on your affairs. 
You know how much alarmed I was from the first lest our Gov- 
ernment should interfere in your affairs. The disposition of our 
ruling class, and the necessities of our cotton trade, pointed to 
some act of intervention ; and the indifference of the great mass 
of our population to your struggle, the object of which they did 
not foresee and understand, would have made intervention easy, 
and indeed popular, if you had been a weaker naval power. This 
state of feeling existed up to the announcement of the Presi- 
dent's Emancipation Policy. From that moment, our old anti- 
slavery feeling began to arouse itself, and it has been gathering 
strength ever since. The great rush of the public to all the pub- 
lic meetings called on the subject shows how wide and deep 
the sympathy for personal freedom still is in the breasts of our 
people. I know nothing in my political experience so striking, 
as a display of spontaneous public action, as that of the vast- 
gathering at Exeter Hall, when, without one attraction in the 
form of a popular orator, the vast building, its minor rooms 
and passages, and the streets adjoining, were crowded with an 
enthusiastic audience. That meeting has had a powerful effect 
on our newspapers and politicians. It has closed the mouths of 



584 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

those who have been advocating the side of the South. And 
I now write to assure you that any unfriendly act on the part 
of our GoYernnient — no matter which of our aristocratic parties 
is in power — towards your cause, is not to be apprehended. 
If an attempt were made by the Government in any way to 
commit us to the South, a spirit would be instantly aroused 
which would drive that Government from power. This, I suppose, 
will be known and felt by the Southern agents in Europe, and, if 
communicated to their Government, must, I should think, operate 
as a great discouragement to them." 

"April 2, 1863. ( „ ) — There are certain things which can 
be done and others which cannot be done by our Government. 
We are bound to do our best to prevent any ship of war being 
built for the Confederate Government, for a ship of war can only 
be used or owned legitimately by a government. But with muni- 
tions of war the case is different. They are bought and sold by 
private merchants for the whole world, and it is not in the power 
of governments to prevent it. Besides, your own Government 
have laid down repeatedly the doctrine that it is no part of the 
duty of governments to interfere with such transactions, for which 
they are not in any way responsible. I was therefore very sorry 
that Mr. Adams had persisted in raising an objection to these trans- 
actions, in which, by the way, the North has been quite as much 
involved as the South. If you have read the debate in the House 
on the occasion when Mr. Forster brought on the subject last 
week, you will see how Sir Boundell Palmer, the Solicitor-General, 
and Mr. Laird, the shipbuilder, availed themselves of this opening 
to divert attention from the real question at issue — the building 
of war ships to the question of selling munitions of war, in which 
latter practice it was shown that you in the North were the great 
participators." 

" May 2, 1863. ( „ ) — I am in no fear whatever of any 
rupture between the two countries arising out of the blockade, or 
the incendiary language of the politicians or the Press on both 
sides of the Atlantic, though these may help to precipitate matters 
on another issue. But the fitting out of privateers to prey on 
your commerce, and to render valueless your mercantile tonnage, 
is another and more serious matter. Great material interests are 
at stake, and unless this evil can be put doWn the most serious 
results may follow. Now I have reason to know that our Govern- 
ment fully appreciates the gravity of this matter. Lord Eussell, 
whatever may be the tone of his ill-mannered despatches, is sin- 
cerely alive to the necessity of putting an end to the equipping of 
ships of war in our harbors to be used against the Federal Govern- 
ment by the Confederates. He was bond fide in his desire to 
prevent the Alabama from leaving, but he was tricked, and was 



Mi. 59.1 THE AMERICAN WAR. 585 

angry at the escape of that vessel. It is necessary that your 
Government should know all this ; and I hope public opinion in 
England will be so alive to the necessity of enforcing the law, that 
there will be no more difficulty in the matter. If Lord Eussell's 
despatches to Mr. Adams are not very civil, he may console him- 
self with the knowledge that the Confederates are still worse 
treated." 

" May 22, 1863. ( „ ) — I called on Lord Eussell, and read 
every word of your last long indictment against him and Lord 
Palmerston, to him. He was a little impatient under the treat- 
ment, but I got through every word. I did my best to improve on 
the text in half an hour's conversation. Public opinion is recov- 
ering its senses. John Bull, you know, has never before been a 
neutral when great naval operations have been carried on, and he 
does not take kindly to the task ; but he is becoming graciously 
reconciled. He also now begins to understand that he has acted 
illegally in applauding those who furnished ships of war to prey 
on your commerce. It will not be repeated." 

" Midhurst, Aug. 7, 1863. ( „ ) — Though we have given you 
such good ground of complaint on account of the cruisers which 
have left our ports, yet you must not forget that we have been the 
only obstacle to what would have been almost a European recog- 
nition of the South. Had England joined France, they would 
have been followed by probably every other State of Europe, 
with the exception of Eussia. This is what the Confederate 
agents have been seeking to accomplish. They have pressed rec- 
ognition on England and France with persistent energy from the 
first. I confess that their eagerness for other European interven- 
tion in some shape has always given me a strong suspicion of their 
conscious weakness. But considering how much more we have 
suffered than other people from the blockade, this abstinence on 
our part from all diplomatic interference is certainly to our credit, 
and this I attribute entirely to the honorable attitude assumed by 
our working population." 

"Midhurst, Jan. 8, 1863. (To Mr. Paulton.) — . ... Do you 
remember when that old slave-dealer, the Confederate envoy, 
breakfasted with you last spring, and we were discussing the vast 
preparations then making by the Federal government, that he 
remarked with considerable emphasis, when alluding to the 
incapacity of the Washington government, ' Sir, I know these 
men well, and I tell you they are setting in motion a machine 
which they have not the capacity to control and guide.' I have 
often thought of the truth of this remark when witnessing the 
frightful mismanagement at headquarters among the Federals dur- 
ing the last twelve months. If it were not for the negro element 
I should think it the most wild and chimerical dream that ever 



586 LIFE OF COBDEN. [186S. 

entered the human mind to think of subjugating the vast region 
comprised in the Southern Confederacy. But I have a suspicion 
that the much-despised * nigger ' is going to play the part of arbiter 
in this great conflict. Neither party wishes' to use him or con- 
sult him in the matter. Both parties will tolerate his inter- 
vention with about equal disgust. But the North stands in the 
position of being able to make the first use of some half-million 
of men who are capable of being drilled into good soldiers, and 
bear the climate of the battle-ground without the average losses 
from disease. 

" These black troops in posse will be more and more the temp- 
tation of the North to make the plunge for complete emancipation. 
It is indeed doubtful whether another army of Northern whites 
could be raised. If the Federal Congress bolt the black dose, 
and resolve to employ black regiments, it will be the beginning 
of the end of slavery. Is it not apparently tending to this ? 
I would have rather seen the work done in almost any other way. 
But the Devil of battles will not, I hope, have it all his own way. 
God will, I hope, snatch something from the carnage to compensate 
us for this terrible work. And spite of the Times and the devil 
I hope the slave will get his freedom yet." 

" Midhurst, Jan. 18, 1863. ( „ ) — . . . . I join with you 
in all your horror of this vulgar and unscientific and endless 
butchery in America. Before the first shot was fired I wrote to 
Sumner to say that if I were a New Englander I would vote with 
both hands for a peaceful separation. But since the fighting 
began I have regarded the matter as beyond the control of reason 
or moral suasion, and I have endeavored to keep my mind as free 
as I could from an all-absorbing interest in the struggle — simply 
on this utilitarian principle — that I can do no good there, and I 
want my faculties and energies to try and do something here. 

" My only absorbing care in connection with the civil war is to 
endeavor to prevent this country from interfering with it. To this 
end I think the anti-slavery direction in which the war is drifting 
will be favorable. I am not much afraid of any widespread acts 
of violence on the part of the negroes. They are generally under 
religious impressions, and are not naturally ferocious. They will 
grow unsettled, and some of them unmanageable, and there will 
be great confusion and swaying to and fro. But though I don't 
expect them to rise and commit desperate crimes, it is quite evi- 
dent that Jefferson Davis feels all the force of the emancipation 
measure as a strategical act. He has allowed his passions to 
master him in the eyes of the world, as shown by his proclamation 
in advance. 

" It will be a strange working of God's Providence if the negro 
turns the scale for the North, after the whites on both sides are 



Mi. 59.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 587 

exhausted. It is clear that the able-bodied blacks will be a cheap 
resource for soldiers for the North for Southern stations. I hope 
you and Hargreaves have agreed not to get into an excitement on 
the subject. 1 The issue is beyond European or human control 
now, and will go on to the bitter end." 



Visit to the Fortifications. 

" Midhurst, Feb. 3. ( „ ) — .... I went last week to 
Portsmouth to see the fortifications. I spent a couple of days in 
the neighborhood. Starting by train from Chichester, I stopped 
at Havant, where a couple of officers from Portsmouth met me, 
and we went thence in a fly over the Downs by Portsclown Hill 
to Fareham, and then from the latter place to Gosport. 

" Our road along the downs passed beside the great inland chain 
of forts covering all the high ground within four or five miles of 
Portsmouth. It is necessary to see these things to understand 
them. The South Down forts are not designed for defence against 
a landing. They, as well as an inner system of forts between the 
Downs and the sea, are planned on the theory that an enemy has 
beaten us at sea and landed in force, and having worsted an army 
on shore, these forts are to prevent the foreign force from taking 
up a position on the downs, and shelling the docks at four or five 
miles off. Of course the theory implies that the enemy is free 
to go elsewhere, and the reasonable inference may be that he 
would prefer going to London, or at least coming to rob our hen- 
roosts who live under the downs ! The programme of course 
contemplates that our own soldiers are safely ensconced in these 
forts beneath their casemates, and behind gigantic ditches in the 
chalk — in fact you never saw such precipitous excavations as 
these are in the Downs to prevent a foreign army from getting 
at an English army, whilst the country is at their mercy. I need 
hardly add that there is not an officer of either service with a 
head on his shoulders who is under fifty, that does not look with 
supreme contempt, disgust, and humiliation at these works. 

" My companions were Captain Cowper Coles, E. 1ST., the in- 
ventor of the cupola ships, and Colonel Williams, of the Ma- 
rine Artillery, who has a pension for wounds, though a young 
man. 

" I saw all that was going on in the dockyards, and came 
away with the conviction that we are now wasting our money 
on iron-cased vessels with broadsides, whilst a new invention 
is in the field which will entirely supersede them. Captain 

l Mr, Paulton, like Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Moffatt, and one or two other of Cobden's 
intimate friends, did not sympathize with the cause of the Union, 



588 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

Coles is building a vessel with four cupolas, or rather is super- 
intending the alteration of one on a principle which it is clear 
must render broadside guns useless." 

" April 22, 1863. (To Mr. Bright) — There is a great and 
growing uneasiness about our relations with the United States, 
and there is so wide an interest taken by our friends from 
America — of whom there is an influential gathering just now 
drawn to this side by an apparent fear of some impending 
mischief — as well as by English people, that I feel quite op- 
pressed with a sense of the responsibility, and write to say that 
I entreat you to come to town, if only on Friday to return on 
Saturday. 1 Besides the confidence you give me when we are 
together, I feel quite sure that the fact of your being present 
with the power of reply exerts a restraining influence on Palmer- 
ston and the other speakers on the Treasury bench, and it is 
especially important that they should be so restrained on this 
occasion. I hope therefore that you will find yourself in a situa- 
tion to come for one night." 

"Sept. 8, 1863. ( „ ) — The tide of battle seems to have 
set in so strongly for the North, that I don't think the friends 
of freedom need feel any anxiety about the result so far as fight- 
ing is concerned. There is, of course, a tremendous difficulty 
beyond, but there is something more than accident which seems 
in the long run to favor the right in this wicked world, and I 
have a strong persuasion that we may live to see a compensat- 
ing triumph for humanity as the result of this most gigantic of 
civil wars. 

" I confess I cannot penetrate the mystery of French politics 
in connection with the United States question. I suppose the Em- 
peror has been very strongly pressed by Slidell and other interested 
parties to take some step to encourage the South. His unwise 
Mexican expedition, about which he must have daily more of 
doubt and misgiving, has placed him in a false and dangerous po- 
sition on the continent of North America ; and we all know how 
in public, as in private life, one false step seems only to necessitate 
another. I have no doubt that his Mexican embarrassment is 
plied with consummate tact and unscrupulous daring by the Con- 
federate agents. The Richmond government will offer any terms 
for the French alliance. Fortunately they ' are in such straits 
themselves, that they have little to offer as a temptation to an 
ambitious but cautious mind like Napoleon's. The influential 
people who surround the Emperor, such as Fould and Rouher, are 
of course opposed to any interference in the American quarrel. . . . 
After all, our chief reliance for the maintenance of a non-interven- 

1 This refers to an important speech of Cobden's on the duty of enforcing the 
Foreign Enlistment Act, It was made on April 24. 



,Et.59.] THE AMERICAN "WAR. 589 

tion policy by France and England is not in the merits or justice 
of that course, but — it is sad to say it — in the tremendous war- 
like power manifested by the Free States of America. Some shal- 
low and indiscreet members of our aristocracy exclaimed at the 
outbreak of the Civil War, ' The Eepublican bubble has burst ; ' 
but the experience of the last two years shows that, whether in 
peace or war, this Eepublic, instead of a bubble, is the greatest 

and most solid fact in all history It is to be hoped that 

gradually our educated mob of the clubs will become, however 
unwillingly, acquainted with the warlike resources of America. 
At present, nine out of ten of them are under the complacent de- 
lusion that we have the power at any moment to raise the block- 
ade, and effect a peace on the basis of separation. And such is 
the invulnerable conceit of a large part of our aristocratic middle 
class, that if such facts as I have given above were published by 
you or myself, -they would be read with incredulity, and we should 
be denounced as Yankee sympathizers. 

" I always take for granted the government will not allow the 
ironclads to leave Laird's, unless they know their real destination. 
The progress of the Federal arms will help the Cabinet over some 
of the legal technicalities of the enlistment act." 

" Midhurst, Oct. 12, 1863. ( „ ) — I have nothing to say, 
but that Mr. Whiting, who is here as successor to Mr. Evarts as 
legal representative of the Washington government, has been vis- 
iting me, and from a rather confidential conversation with him, I 
find that you must have been misinformed as to the correspondence 
or communications that have been taking place between Adams 
and our Foreign Office. The President, from what I gather from 
Mr. W., who seems to be in the most confidential relations with 
him and his Cabinet, is determined whatever happens, short of a 
direct intervention, not to have a rupture with England or France 
during the Civil War. And he has not authorized Adams to give 
any notice of leaving his post even if the ironclads are permitted, 
on the plea of legality, to leave our ports. Nor will he meddle 
with Mexican politics, whatever may happen, whilst Jeff Davis is 
in the field. In all this he shows a strong common sense much 
to be commended. 

" Mr. Whiting tells me that Mr. Adams had no assurance up to 
the last from our Government that the Rams would not leave, and 
even when our semi-official papers were announcing that they had 
been arrested, he gave expression to a fear that he might get up 
any morning and find the ships had escaped. Now that I see by 
yesterday's paper that the broad arrow has been put upon the 
Rams, I suppose the matter is settled." 

" Midhurst, Oct. 17,1863. ( „ ) — I return Aspinall's and 
Chase's letters. I was pleased with Chase when I saw him in 



590 LIFE OF COBDEN. [18&S. 

Ohio, where he was Governor of the State in 1859. He is in his 
physical and mental traits not unlike Sumner — a massy, stately- 
principled man, but more practical and less of the rhetorician 
than his Massachusetts colleague. He is altogether a different 
type to Seward. 

" I have a letter from Evarts by the last mail. He seems well 
pleased at the detention of the Rams. He has a passage in his 
letter which seems rather to corroborate your information about 
Lord Eussell. He says, ' From information which I have of the 
severity and uncertainty of the final struggle with yo.ur ministry, 
Earl Eussell was discreditably slow and unsteady in coming to 
the right decision. I am sure that when the communications of 
proofs as to the destination of these ships of war made to your 
government are made public, common sense on both sides of the 
water will be shocked at the stumbling hesitancy of the ministe- 
rial council in face of the facts, and at the narrow escape the two 
nations have had from at least partial hostilities'.' " 

"October^, 1864. ( „ ) — I should say that as a politician 
Lincoln is very superior to McClellan, who is a professional sol- 
dier and nothing more. By the way, Lincoln stumped Illinois for 
the Senate in opposition to Douglas, the ablest debater in America 
after Clay. They travelled from county town to county town to- 
gether, and met the same audience on the same platform in forty 
or fifty counties, questioning, bantering, and exposing each other's 
shortcomings. It is the fashion to underrate Lincoln intellectually 
in part, because he illustrates his arguments with amusing anec- 
dotes. But Franklin was not less given to apologues, and some 
of them not of the most refined character. It is quite certain that 
an inferior man could never have maintained such a contest as 
Lincoln went through with Douglas. Presidents are apt to fulfil 
the second term better than the first. Chase is the strongest man 
of the Republican party, and I sincerely hope Lincoln will bring 
him back to the Treasury. 

" I hope you were pleased with the compliment paid us in 
California. 1 There is a poetical sublimity about the idea of as- 
sociating our name with a tree 300 feet high and 60 feet girth ! 
Verily it is a monument not built with men's hands. If I were 
twenty years younger, I would hope to look on these forest giants ; 
great trees and rivers have an attraction for me." 



& 



Political Torpor of the Day. 

"April 5, 1863. (To Mr. Hargreaves) — How do you admire 
the reception given to the ' Feargus O'Connor of the middle classes ' 

1 The names of Cobden and Bright were inscribed respectively on tablets on two 
of the giant trees of the Yosomite valley. 



Mt. 59.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 591 

in Scotland ? 1 For the Town Councils and their addresses I can 
find excuses ; they are privileged flunkies, and nothing else could 
be expected from them. But there is no doubt that the demon- 
stration was largely shared by the working class, which is certainly 
one of the most singular and inexplicable of public incidents. It 

brings to my mind the saying of our librarian, , who, when 

speaking of the old Premier, called him ' the most successful im- 
postor since Mahomet ! ' 

" There is a remarkable fact in the political movement, or rather 
political torpor of our day, that the non-electors, or workingmen, 
have no kind of organization or organ of the Press by which they 
can make their existence known, either to help their friends or pre- 
vent their body being used as was done in Glasgow, to strengthen 
their enemies — for the latter effect has no doubt been produced 
by the address from the working class presented to the Premier. 

" I observe what you say about Bright' s powers of eloquence. 
That eloquence has been most unsparingly used since the repeal 
of the Corn Laws — now going on for nearly twenty years — in 
advocating financial economy and parliamentary reform, and in 
every possible way for the abasement of privilege and the eleva- 
tion of the masses. If he could talk till doomsday he would 
never surpass the strains of eloquence with which he has ex- 
pounded the right and demolished the wrong cause. Yet see with 
what absolute lack of success ! 

" Now if you have ever the chance of bringing your influence 
to bear on him in this connection, let it be, I entreat you, to urge 
him to take any opportunity that the working class may offer him 
to tell them frankly that nobody can help them until they are 
determined to help themselves. Let the responsibility be thrown 
back on them in a way to sting them into an effort, if self-respect 
fail to excite them. They should be told plainly that old parties 
have coalesced on the ground that no further parliamentary re- 
form is required — that five millions of adult males in the king- 
dom are politically ignored, or only remembered to be insulted, 
and that this state of things will endure so long as the five mil- 
lions eat, drink, smoke, and sleep contentedly under the proscrip- 
tion, and that no power on earth will ever help them out of their 
political serfdom until they show that they can discriminate be- 
tween those who would emancipate them and those who would 
keep them as they are. Until the non-electoral class can have a 
bond fide organization in every large town, composed of their own 
class, and self-sustained, it is a pure waste of life' and strength for 
a man of Bright's genius to attempt to advance their cause in 
that packed assembly, the House of Commons." 

1 Lord Palmerston was installed as Lord Rector at Glasgow, March 30, and had 
a very triumphant reception. See.Irving's Annals of our Time, p. 644. 



5'92 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

On Privateering. 

"Oct. 6, 1863. (To Mr. Bigelow.) — In 1854, on the breaking 
out of the Crimean war, a communication was sent by England 
and France to the American Government, expressing a confident 
hope that it would, ' in the spirit of just reciprocity, give orders 
that no privateer under Eussian colors shall be equipped, or 
victualled, or admitted with its prizes, in the ports of the United 
States,' &c. It has occurred to me to call your attention to this, 
although I dare say it has not escaped Mr. Dayton's recollection. 
But I should be curious to know what answer the French Gov- 
ernment would now make if its own former language was quoted 
against the course now being taken at Brest in repairing, and I 
suppose ' victualling,' the ' Florida,' If the answer be that this 
vessel is not a ' privateer ' but a regularly commissioned ship of 
war, then I think the opportunity should not be lost to put on 
record a rejoinder to this argument, showing the futility of the 
Declaration of Paris against privateering ; for if a vessel sailing 
under one form of authority issued by Jefferson Davis, and called 
a ' commission,' can do all the mischief to your merchant vessels 
which another could do carrying another piece of paper called a 
• letter of marque,' it is obvious that the renunciation of priva- 
teering by the Paris Congress is a mere empty phrase, and all the 
boasted gain to humanity is nothing but a delusion, if not a hol- 
low subterfuge. I think it might be well if Mr. Dayton were to 
take this opportunity of justifying the policy of the United States 
in refusing to be a party to the Declaration of Paris, unless pri- 
vate property at sea was exempt from capture by armed ships of 
all kinds. The argument would be valuable for reproduction at 
a future time, when the question of belligerent rights comes up 
again for discussion." 



CHAPTEE XXXV. 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DELANE. 

It was inevitable that a public man, working for a transformation 
of political opinion, should incur the hostility of the great news- 
paper of the day, for the simple reason that it has always been 
the avowed principle of the conductors of that newspaper to keep 
very close to the political opinion of the country in its unregen- 
erate state. This principle it is not our business here to discuss, 
but we can easily perceive how it would come to make the news- 



.Et. 59.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DELANE. 593 

paper sincerely mimical to the Manchester school. We need not 
resort to private grudges to explain what is perfectly intelligible 
without them. 

" I remember," said Cobden, in his speech on behalf of Mr. 
Bright at Manchester in 1857, "the first time I spoke in public 
after returning home from the Continent in 1847. It was at a 
dinner-party in Manchester at which I took the chair; and I 
took the opportunity of launching this question of the press, and 
saying that the newspaper press of England was not free, and 
that this was a thing which the reformers of the country ought 
to set about — to emancipate it. Well, I got a most vicious ar- 
ticle next day from the Times newspaper for that, and the Times 
has followed us both with a very ample store of venom ever 
since." 1 "Any man," he said on the same occasion, "who has 
lived in public life, as I have, must know that it is quite useless 
to contradict, any falsehood or calumny, because it comes up again 
next day just as rife as ever. There is the Times newspaper 
always ready to repeat it, and the grosser the better." " My 
plan," he wrote to a friend in 1861, " has always been to meet 
that journal with a bold front, and neither to give nor to take 
quarter. I may add that if ever I have succeeded in any public 
proceedings, it has always been in spite of the opposition of that 
print. It was so with the League ; with the abolition of the 
Taxes on Knowledge ; and with the French Treaty. You may 
take my word for it, you never can be in the path for success, in 
any great measure of policy, unless you are in opposition to that 
journal." 2 

It was very easy to see the reason why all this should be as it 
was. In 1850 Cobden told Mr. John Cassell that he believed the 
newspaper stamp to be the greatest grievance that the democracy 
had in the whole list of fiscal exactions. " So long as the penny 
lasts, there can be no daily press for the middle or working class. 
Who below the rank of a merchant or wholesale dealer can afford 
to take in a daily paper at fivepence ? Clearly it is beyond the 
reach of the mechanic and the shopkeeper. The result is that 
the daily press is written for its customers — the aristocracy, the 
millionnaires, and the clubs and news-rooms. The great public 
cannot have its organs of the daily press, because it cannot afford 
to pay for them. The dissenters have no daily organ for the same 
reason. The governing class in this country will resist the re- 
moval of the penny stamp, not on account of the loss of revenue 
(that is no obstacle with a surplus of two or three millions), but 
because they know that the stamp makes the daily press the in- 
strument and servant of the oligarchy." 

i Speeches, ii. 77. 2 To Mr. W. S. Lindsay. Feb. 25, 1861. 

38 



594 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

His correspondence shows with how sharp an eye Cobden 
watched his masked foe. He jealously noted any post that was 
conferred on a writer in the Times ; in this respect, I am bound 
to confess, being rather apt to make mountains out of extremely 
small molehills. 1 He told his friends in scornful tones of the 
social deference that was paid in private by great people to the 
famous editor, and was scandalized, here also rather unreasonably, 
to find him dining at tables where every guest but himself was an 
ambassador, a cabinet minister, or a bishop. An eminent visitor 
from the United States, who had .access to London society, was 
for a long time perplexed by the social attentions that were be- 
stowed on this mysterious being, and in conversation with Cobden 
contrasted the position of the press and its conductors in England 
with that of similar personages in his own country. " In Amer- 
ica," said Cobden, referring to this in a letter to Mr. Hargreaves, 
" the editor or proprietor puts his name on the front of his paper, 
fights the battles of his party openly, shares in the honors of its 
victories, and is to be found among the senators, the governors of 
States, etc. But with us the conductor of the Times preserves a 
strict incognito to his readers, on the plea that anonymous writing- 
is necessary for preserving his independence, whilst he inconsist- 
ently drops the mask in the presence of those who dispense social 
distinctions and dispose of government patronage — the very per- 
sons towards whom in the interests of the public he ought to pre- 
serve his independence." 2 

In November, 1863, it happened that in his annual address to 
his constituents, Cobden made a passing reference to the land 
question, and Mr. Bright followed with more on the same subject. 
The Times promptly accused the two Gracchi of Rochdale of ex- 
citing discontent among the poor, and proposing a spoliation of 
the owners of land. The rest of the story is worth telling, if for 
no other reason, because it illustrates the kind of opinion which 
public writers could at that time pretend seriously to hold about 
these two statesmen. 

By accident Cobden saw the misrepresentation of which his 
enemy had been guilty, and he at once wrote the following letter 
to the editor of the Times : — 

1 It is worth remembering, however, that in the famous Slough speech of 1858, 
Mr. Disraeli accused his Whig adversaries of " corrupting the once pure and inde- 
pendent press of England." "Innocent people in the country," he said, "who 
look to the leading articles in the newspapers for advice and direction — who look 
to what are called leading organs to be the guardians of their privileges and the 
directors of their political consciences — are not the least aware, because this sort 
of knowledge travels slowly, that leading organs now are place-hunters of the court, 
and that the once stern guardians of popular rights simper in the enervating atmos- 
phere of gilded saloons." 

2 To W. Hargreaves. Feb. 16, 1861. 



JEt. 59.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DELANE. 595 

Sir, — The following is extracted from your yesterday's leading article : — 

" Then, though a small state may have something to lose by change, it has 
usually more to gain; and so it comes to pass that it looks upon any attempt 
to reconstruct the map, or reform the institutions of Europe, with something 
of that satisfaction with which the poor might regard Mr. Bright' s proposition 
for a division among them of the lands of the rich, or the Roman plebeians 
might hang on the lips of Gracchus when he rose to expound to them his last 
plan for a new colony, with large grants of land to every citizen who should 
join it." 

Without communicating with Mr. Bright, I trouble you with a few words 
on this gross literary outrage, which concerns not him alone, but every public 
man. To utter a syllable to prove that the above assertion, that Mr. Bright 
advocated a division of the lands of the rich among the poor, is a groundless 
and gratuitous falsehood, would be to offer an insult to one who has done 
more than probably any other public man to popularize those economical truths 
on which the rights of property are based. To say that it is a foul libel for 
which the publisher is amenable to law were beside the question, because the 
object of the calumny would scorn any other court of appeal than that of 
public opinion. But a wider question is forced on our attention by this speci- 
men of your too habitual mode of dealing, not merely with individuals, but 
with the interests of society. A tone of pre-eminent unscrupulousness in the 
discussion of political questions, a contempt for the rights and feelings of 
others, and a shameless disregard of the claims of consistency and sincerity 
on the part of its writers, have long been recognized as the distinguishing 
characteristics of the Times, and placed it in marked contrast with the rest 
of the periodical press, including the penny journals of the metropolis and the 
provinces. Its writers are, I believe, betrayed into this tone mainly by their 
reliance on the shield of an impenetrable secrecy. No gentleman would dream 
of saying, under the responsibility of his signature, what your writer said of 
Mr. Bright yesterday. I will not stop to remark on the deterioration of char- 
acter which follows when a man of education and rare ability thus lowers 
himself — ay, even in his own eyes — to a condition of moral cowardice ; for 
will he deny that if he were to meet Mr. Bright in the club, or the House of 
Commons, with the knowledge that his secret was divulged, he would cower 
with conscious inferiority before the man he had stabbed in the dark 1 This, 
however, is his own affair. But there is another aspect of the subject in which 
the public is directly interested. 

In the present management of the Times there is an essential departure 
from the plan on which it was conducted twenty or thirty years ago, which 
distinguishes it from all other journals. They who associate in the higher 
political circles of the metropolis know that the chief editor and the manager 
of the Times, while still maintaining a strict incognito towards the public, 
drops the mask with very sufficient reasons in the presence of those powerful 
classes who are at once the dispensers of social distinction, and (on which I 
might have something to say) of the patronage of the Government. We all 
know the man whose fortune is derived from the Times ; we know its mana- 
ger ; its only avowed and responsible editor — he of the semi-official corre- 
spondence with Sir Charles Napier in the Baltic — through whose hands, 
though he never pen a line himself, every slander in its leaders must pass — 
is as well known to us as the chief official at the Home Office. Now the ques- 
tion is forced on us, whether we who are behind the scenes are not bound, in 
the interests of the uninitiated public, and as the only certain mode of abat- 
ing such outrages as this, to lift the veil and dispel the illusion by which the 
Times is enabled to pursue this game of secrecy to the public, and servility to 
the Government — a game (I purposely use the word) which secures for its 
connections the corrupt advantages, while denying to the public its own 
boasted benefits of the anonymous system. 



596 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

It will be well for public men to decide, eacb in his own case (for my- 
self I have no doubt on the subject), whether, in response to such attacks as 
these, they will continue to treat the Times as an impersonal myth; or whether 
on the contrary, they will in future summon the responsible editor, manager, 
or proprietor to the bar of public opinion, and hold him up by name to the 
obloquy which awaits the traducer and the calumniator in every other walk 
of social and political life. I am, &c, 

Richard Cobden. 

Midhurst, December 4, 1863. 

This letter was not inserted in the Times, and the Editor wrote 
to Cobden a reply, of which the following is the substance : — 

The Times Office, Dec. 7, 1863. 

The Editor of the Times presents his compliments to Mr. Cobden, and 
encloses a proof of his letter, which, though it arrived by Saturday's post, 
only reached the Editor's hands last evening. He could not then give it 
immediate consideration, but, in deference to Mr. Cobden's name, he an- 
nounced that it should be published to-morrow. 

On reading it, however, this morning, he thinks — and he trusts Mr. 
Cobden will, on reperusal, agree with him — that Mr. Cobden has no right 
to expect him, upon a pretext entirely irrelevant, to publish a series of most 
offensive and unfounded imputations upon himself and his friends. 

.... The facts, however, are shortly these : — Messrs. Cobden and 
Bright make two speeches at Rochdale, which are reported in the Times at 
unusual length, and with extraordinary promptitude. These speeches are 
discussed elaborately in two leading articles on successive days, and in each 
of them certain passages are interpreted as recommending a repartition of the 
land among the poor. Messrs. Cobden and Bright are expressly challenged 
to disavow this interpretation if it misrepresents their meaning ; but they 
make no reply, and apparently accept it as conveying their true intention. 

The speeches, as reported, also remain before the public for upwards of a 
week, and the interpretation put upon them by the Times provokes no adverse 
remark. At last an article appears upon a totally different subject, in which 
an allusion is made in a single phrase to Mr. Bright's supposed opinions, and 
Mr. Cobden pounces upon this phrase, not that he may discuss the true inter- 
pretation of Mr. Bright's expressions, but that he may make a vague and most 
offensive attack upon the Times and its conductors. 

The Editor declines to permit the Times to be made the means of dissemi- 
nating imputations which he knows to be unfounded, and which are entirely 
irrelevant to the question at issue. 

The sensation was tremendous in Fleet Street and Pall Mall, 
when Cobden published his rejoinder, not to the impersonal 
Editor, but to Mr. Delane in his own proper name. 

To John T. Delane, Esq. 

Sir, — You and I have been long personally acquainted ; your handwriting 
is known to me, and I know you to be the chief Editor of the Times. Under 
such circumstances I cannot allow you to suppress your individuality, and 
shield yourself under the third person of the editorial nominative, in a . 
correspondence affecting your personal responsibility for a scandalous asper- 
sion on myself (as I now learn for the first time from you) as well as on 
Mr. Bright. 



^t. 59.] CORRESPONDENCE . WITH MR. DELANE. 597 

Your refusal to publish my former letter is a matter so entirely within 
your own province, that I have nothing to say upon it, except to congratulate 
myself on the recent revolution in the newspaper world, which renders your 
decision comparatively harmless. A few years ago the Times possessed almost 
a monopoly of publicity. Four fifths of the daily newspaper circulation 
issued from its press. Now it constitutes, probably, one tenth of our diurnal 
journalism, and my letter will be only the more generally read from having 
been excluded from your columns. 

But your letter proceeds to offer some most singular arguments in justifica- 
tion of your attack on Mr. Bright. You state that your journal had previously 
contained two leading articles, casting the same imputation both on him and 
myself, that you had challenged us to disavow your interpretation of our 
speeches, and as we had failed to do so, you accepted our silence as an 
acknowledgment of the truth of your interpretation, — in other words, as proof 
of our guilt ! Here we have, in a compendious form, an exhibition of those 
qualities which characterize the editorial management of the Times, — of that 
arrogant self-complacency, logical incoherence, and moral bewilderment, which 
a too long career of impunity and irresponsibility could alone engender. 

Now that which lies at the basis of this reasoning, if such it may be termed, 
is an inordinate display of what I must call Times egotism. Notwithstanding 
that your journal has now but a fractional part of the daily newspaper circu- 
lation, you complacently assume that all the world are your constant readers. 
The Times never enters my house, except by rare accident. This I know to 
be also the case with Mr. Bright, who will, in all probability, never have seen 
your attack until he reads it in my letter. It is only during the Session, at 
the Club, that I am in the habit of seeing your paper. The chance visit of a 
friend last Friday placed in my hand the Times of the previous day, when 
that scandalous paragraph caught my eye which formed the text of my letter 
to you. I was entirely ignorant of the two former attacks, which, by a droll 
process of reasoning, you now invite me to accept as a justification of the 
third. Now, let me ask you to descend for a minute from your editorial 
chair, while I illustrate this logic by a hypothetical case put to Mr. Delane, the 
barrister. Suppose that the constituents of Mr. Bright were to indict your 
publisher for defaming their member, and that it was proposed in a consulta- 
tion of lawyers, at which you were present, to set up as a plea of justification 
at the trial that the same libel had been twice previously published against 
both Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden, — would it fail to occur to you that, in the 
eyes of an honest judge and jury, this defence would be considered an aggra- 
vation of the offence 1 

But we will assume, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Bright and I are 
regular subscribers to, and diligent readers of, your newspaper, "is it seriously 
contended that as often as you choose to pervert the sense of our speeches, 
and charge us with schemes of public robbery, the onus lies with us to dis- 
prove the imputation, and that, neglecting to do so, we have no right to com- 
plain if we are thenceforth treated as felons 1 Would it not occur to any one 
but an editor of the Times that, before we violate the ninth commandment, 
the obligation lies with us to know that we are not bringing a false accusa- 
tion against our neighbor ? 

Now, a word upon the subject which has given rise to this correspondence. 
Nobody knows better than yourself, except the writer who actually penned 
the scandalous passage in question, that this charge of wishing to divide the 
land of the rich among the poor, when levelled at Mr. Bright, is nothing but 
the resort to a stale rhetorical trick (though the character of the libel is not 
on that account altered) to draw away public attention from the real issue, 
and thus escape from the discussion of a serious, but, for the moment, an incon- 
venient public topic. In order to trail a red herring across the true scent the 



598 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

cry of spoliation was raised. You and your writers cannot be ignorant that 
the laws and political institutions of this country tend to promote the ag- 
glomeration of agricultural land in a constantly lessening number of hands : — 
you and I know, by a joint experience, which neither of us is likely to have 
forgotten, bow great are the obstacles whicb the law interposes to the free 
transfer of landed property in this country. Now, the policy which sustains 
this state of things is a public question, which is not only fairly open to dis- 
cussion, but invites the earnest attention and study of public men. In this, 
as in every other human concern, we must bring the matter to the test of 
experience, and in no way can this be more effectually done than by a com- 
parison between the condition of the great majority of the agricultural popu- 
lation in this and other countries. The subject of our land laws has engaged 
the attention of eminent statesmen, and of our highest legal authorities ; but 
I will venture to add — and it is all I shall condescend to say in refutation 
of your aspersions — that if there are two persons who beyond all others 
have given pledges throughout an ardent discussion of kindred topics during 
a quarter of a century, that in debating the question of the tenure and trans- 
fer of land they would observe the restraints of law, justice, and political 
economy, they are the men whom your journal has dared to charge with the 
advocacy of a scheme for robbing the landowners of their property for the 
benefit of the poor. 

Judging from past experience, this intrusion of a gross personality will 
tend only to attract public notice to a matter which it was meant to put out 
of sight. It has been the fate of the Times to help forward every cause it has 
opposed. By its truculent, I had almost said ruffianly, attacks on every 
movement while in {he weakness of infancy, it has roused to increased efforts 
the energies of those it has assailed ; while, at the same time, it has awakened 
the attention of a languid public, and attracted the sympathy of fair and 
manly minds. It is thus that such public measures as the abolition of the 
Corn Laws, the repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge, and the negotiation of 
the Treaty of Commerce with France, triumphed in spite of its virulent, per- 
tinacious, and unscrupulous opposition ; until, at last, I am tending to the 
conviction that there are three conditions only requisite for the success of 
any great project of reform, — namely, a good cause, persevering advocates, 
and the hostility of the Times. 

I shall forward this correspondence for publication in the Rochdale Observer, 
that it may at least be perused by the community which has the greatest 
interest in a controversy which concerns the reputation of Mr. Bright and 
myself. I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

R. Cobden. 
Midhukst, Dec. 9, 1863. 

To this Mr. Delane replied (Dec. 11) that it was quite true that 
they had long been personally acquainted ; that there was no need 
to identify his handwriting ; and that he had no desire to deny 
his personal responsibility for what Cobden was pleased to call 
his "scandalous aspersions." Proceeding to vindicate himself, 
Mr. Delane asked whether it was egotistic or unreasonable to sup- 
pose that one. who had pounced so promptly upon a single phrase 
in an article of much inferior interest to himself, should have read 
the articles which discussed his own speech ? Could he be ex- 
pected to know that a gentleman who once preferred a single 
copy of the Times " to all the books of Thucydides " did not admit 



^Et. 59.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DELANE. 599 

the Times to his house ? x The pith of the vindication was in the 
following paragraph : — 

You attribute to the Times a deliberate misrepresentation of your meaning, 
and that of Mr. Bright, as to the means of amending the unequal distribution 
of land between the rich and the poor. I repeat that certain passages in your 
speeches will, in my opinion, bear no other interpretation than that ascribed 
to them. If you merely intended to recommend measures for facilitating the 
conveyance of land, as your reference to our transaction at Ascot would sug- 
gest, your language was the most strangely exaggerated that was ever used to 
further a humble instalment of law reform. If you had read the Times, in- 
stead of condemning it unread, you would have known that ' it has always 
advocated the simplification of means for the transfer of land, and that its 
advocacy has not been altogether unsuccessful. But just as no simplification 
of conveyances will compel the rich to sell land or enable the poor to buy it, 
so no legislative measure will render the purchase of land a profitable invest- 
ment for the poor. 

The possession, the transfer, and the tenure of land are, however, public 
questions, which are best discussed, not between Mr. Cobden and Mr. Delane, 
but as it has always been the practice of the English press to discuss them — 
anonymously. That practice was not invented by me ; it will not be de- 
stroyed by yourself. It has approved itself to the judgment of all, whether 
statesmen or publicists, who have appreciated the freedom and independence 
of the press ; and I believe it to be essential to the interests not only of the 
press, but of the public. 

Cobden, however, insisted on carrying on the controversy with 
Mr. Delane : — 

To John T. Delane, Esq. 

Sir, — I have received the letter dated from your private residence, and 
bearing your own signature, in which you take on yourself personally the 
responsibility of the interpretation put by the Times on the speeches of Mr. 
Bright and myself at Rochdale — namely, that we proposed " a division among 
the poor of the lands of the rich." Your letter to me says : — 

" You attribute to the Times a deliberate misrepresentation of your mean- 

1 This refers to an expression of Cobden's which was a standing joke against him 
in those days. At a meeting of the Manchester Athenaeum (Dec. 27, 1850), Cobden 
used the following language : — "I take it that, as a rule, grown-up men, in these 
busy times, read very little else but newspapers. I think the reading of volumes 
is almost the exception ; and the man who habitually has between his fingers 400 
or 500 newspapers in the course of the year — that is, daily and weekly newspapers 
— and is engaged pretty actively in business, or in political or public life — depend 
upon it, whatever he may say, or like to have it thought to the contrary, he reads 
very little else, as a rule, but the current periodical literature ; and I doubt if a 
man with limited time could read anything else that would be much more useful to 
him. I believe it has been said that one copy of the Times contains more useful 
information than the whole of the historical books of Thucydides — (laughter) ; — 
and I am very much inclined to think that to an Englishman or an American of 
the present day that is strictly true." The opinion may be sound or not, but the 
expression was a slip, because it showed that the speaker knew little about the 
author on whose comparative value he was hinting a judgment. Too much was 
made of the slip by journalists and collegians who knew little more about Thucydi- 
des than did Cobden himself, but who now wrote as if that rather troublesome 
author were the favorite companion of their leisure hours. 



600 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

ing, and that of Mr. Bright, as to the means 'of amending the unequal distri- 
bution of the land between the rich and the poor. I repeat that certain 
passages in your speeches will, in my opinion, bear no other interpretation 
than that ascribed to them." 

This is a grave accusation. I am told that, if proved, it would bring Mr. 
Bright and myself within the provisions of the Act 57th Geo. III. cap. 19, 
and render us liable to the penal consequences of transportation for seven 
years. 

I will not believe that you can be so wanting in the respect due to others, 
as well as yourself, as to have addressed this accusation to me, unless with the 
belief that you have evidence to substantiate it. 

1 call on you to give me those " certain passages " to which you refer, and 
which are really now the only question at issue between you and me. That 
there may be no excuse or ground for delay, I accept the report which appeared 
in your paper as an accurate version of my speech ; and to aid you in your 
task I have cut from the Times the entire passage which contains all that I 
said in reference to the condition of the people generally, or to the agricultural 
population, and the land question in particular. But let it be distinctly un- 
derstood that I do not confine you to this extract, but that I give you the 
entire range of my speech. 

Before giving the passage I will say a few words, which, although I do not 
in the slightest degree claim for them the character of evidence, may have 
interest in some quarters. 

It is known that I am not in the habit of writing a word beforehand of 
what I speak in public. Like other speakers, practice has given me as perfect 
self-possession in the presence of an audience as if I were writing in my 
closet. Now, my ever-constant and overruling thought while addressing a 
public meeting, the one necessity which long experience of the arts of contro- 
versialists has impressed on my mind, is to avoid the possibility of being 
misrepresented, and prevent my opponents from raising a false issue — a trick 
of logic as old as the time of Aristotle. If I have, as some favorable critics 
are pleased to think, sometimes spoken with clearness, it is more owing to 
this ever-present fear of misrepresentation than any other cause : — it is thus 
that the most noxious things in life may have their uses. When in my 
speech at Rochdale I came to touch upon the subject of the land, the thought 
instantly flashed upon me — and none but the public speaker knows with 
what velocity thoughts move when in the presence of 4000 listeners — that I 
was dealing with a question about which there is a superstition in England, 
unknown elsewhere, and that the enemy would raise the cry of agrarianism 
against me, and hence my denunciation of agrarian outrage, which will be 
found in the following extract. Had I been inspired with the faculty of 
second-sight, and seen the Editor of the Times sitting bodily penning his 
criticism on my speech, I could not have more completely refuted and con- 
founded in anticipation the charge now brought against me. 

The following is the passage referred to : — 

" It lias been a fashion of late to talk of an extension of the franchise as some- 
thing not to be tolerated, because it is assumed that the mass of the community are 
not fitted to take a part in government, and people point to America and France, 
and other countries, and draw comparisons between this country and other coun- 
tries. Now, I hope I shall not be considered revolutionary, because at my age I 
don't want any revolutions. They won't serve me, I am sure, or anybody that be- 
longs to me. England may compare very favorably with most other countries if 
you draw the line in society tolerably high ; and if you compare the condition of 
the rich and the upper classes of England, or a considerable portion of the middle 
classes, with the same classes abroad. I don't think a rich man, barring the cli- 
mate, which is not very good, could be very much happier anywhere else than in 
England ; but when my opponents treat this question of the franchise as one that 



Ms. 59.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DELANE. 601 

threatens to bring the masses of the people down from their present state to the level 
of other nations, I say that I have travelled in most civilized countries, and that 
the masses of my fellow-countrymen do not compare so favorably with the masses 
of other countries as I could wish. I find in other countries a greater proportion of 
people owning property than there are in England. I don't know a Protestant 
community in the world where the masses of the people are so illiterate as in Eng- 
land. These are not bad tests of the condition of a people. It is no use your 
talking of your army and navy, your exports and your imports — it is no use tell- 
ing me you have a small portion of your people exceedingly well off. I want to 
bring the test to a comparison of the majority of the people with the majority of 
the people in other countries. Now, I say with regard to some things in foreign 
countries we don't compare favorably. The condition of the English peasantry has 
no parallel on the face of the earth. (Hear.) You have no other peasantry but 
that of England which is entirely divorced from the land. There is no other 
country in the world where you will not find men holding the plough and turning 
up the furrow upon their own freehold. i~ don't want any agrarian outrages by 
which we should change all this, but this I find, and it is v quite consistent with 
human nature, that wherever I go the condition of the people is generally pretty 
good, in comparison with the power they have to take care of themselves ; and if 
you have a class entirely destitute of political power, while in another country 
they possess it, they will be treated there with more consideration, they will 
have greater advantages, they will be better educated, and have a better chance 
of possessing property, than in a country where they are deprived of political 
power. (Hear.) " 

You will observe in the above passage from my speech, taken from your 
own report, that I use the words, " I don't want any agrarian outrages by 
which we should change all this ; " and now we must appeal to the authority 
of the lexicographer. If you turn to Webster's (quarto) Dictionary you will 
find the word " agrarian " interpreted, on the authority of Burke, as fol- 
lows : — 

" Relating to lands. Denoting or pertaining to an equal division of lands ; 
as, the agrarian laws of Rome, which distributed the conquered and other 
public lands equally among all the citizens, limiting the quantity which each 
might enjoy." Again, in the same Dictionary the word. " agrarianism " is 
given as " an equal division of lands or property, or the principles of those who 
favor such a division." 

Thus, in repudiating the agrarian system, I repudiated, in pure and un- 
questionable English, according to Burke, the principles of those who favor 
an equal division of land ; I repudiated the agrarian laws of Rome ; and yet, 
in spite of this, you charge me and Mr. Bright with " proposing a division 
among the poor of the lands of the rich," and you associate us with Gracchus 
in schemes of socialistic spoliation. 

Mr. Delane in reply (Dec. 16) insisted that the passage to which 
Codden had referred him, did in his opinion convey a proposition 
for the division among the poor of the lands of the rich. " You 
seem to assume," he said, " that I charged you with proposing 
that this division should be accomplished by violence. But your 
own words were there to prove to me that such was not your 
meaning, and to confute me instantly if I had attempted to at- 
tach that meaning to it." This, as we shall see in a moment, 
ruined Mr. Delane's case, for the Times had distinctly and in 
terms described the proposed change as the work of violence. 
Meanwhile he went on to say that it could be effected by com- 
pulsory partition after death, as in France : — 



602 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

A similar measure proposed by yourself, or by Mr. Bright, and carried in a 
Parliament elected principally by the peasantry whom you desire to enfran- 
chise, because they would then " have a better chance of having property," 
would in two or three generations not only check the accumulation of land 
in few hands, but would break up all existing estates, great or small, and thus 
largely increase the number of proprietors. In another generation, probably, 
the peasant himself would " turn up the furrow on his own freehold," and be 
no longer " divorced from the land." 

You suggest so obviously that it is by legislative measures — rendered 
possible by giving political power to the peasantry — you propose to " amend 
the unequal distribution of the land between the " rich and the poor," that 
no one would think of charging you with endeavoring to effect this great 
change by violence. 

It was clear that Mr. Delane had now surrendered himself 
into the hands of his adversary. Cobden did not allow him 
to escape. " For the first time," he replied (Dec. 18), "you now 
disavow having imputed to Mr. Bright and myself the design 
of promoting by violent, illegal, or immoral means a redistribu- 
tion of the land of this country." Grammar, logic, and common 
sense, he said, all revolted against the Editor's attempt to show 
the connection between his former language and his new ac- 
cusation. 

You now profess only to impute to us the design of favoring the equal 
division of landed property among all the children at the death of a proprie- 
tor. But this will not correspond with your reiterated chaige that we con- 
templated a division " among the poor of the land of the rich." What you 
now affect to consider to be our object is the division of the land of the rich 
equally among the children of the rich. I must bring the question to the 
test of your own language. 

In your leading article of December 3, you alleged that the small states of 
the Continent regarded a congress with the "satisfaction with which the poor 
might regard Mr. Blight's proposition for dividing among them the lands of 
the rich." I now infer, from your new interpretation, that I am asked to 
construe this as meaning only the satisfaction with which the children of rich 
landowners would regard a proposition for dividing among them the lands 
of their fathers. 

Again, in your letter to me of December 7 you stated, " These speeches are 
discussed elaborately in two leading articles on successive days, and in each 
of them certain passages are interpreted as recommending a repartition of the 
land nmong the poor." Now, the word partition or repartition means simply 
a division, and not a bequest or inheritance, and yet, with our dictionaries at 
hand, you now ask me to interpret the " repartition of the land among 
the poor," as only meaning that Mr. Bright and I wished to compel rich land- 
owners at their death to leave their estates equally among all their children. 
And in your letter to me of December 11 you "repeat" the assertion that 
" certain passages " of our speeches " bear no other interpretation than that 
ascribed to them." Now up to that date you had put no other interpretation 
on those speeches than that they advocated the " division of the land of the 
rich among the poor." The poor we are now told to interpret to mean only 
the children of rich landowners ! 

Then, I suppose, we are expected to forget that you coupled us with Grac- 
chus, and the agrarian system of Rome. 



Mi. 59.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DELANE. 603 

No ; in the teeth of all these proofs in plain, unmistakable English to 
the contrary, I should be sacrificing truth to courtesy were I to affect to 
concur in this new version of your language, which does not admit of two 
meanings. 

This was sufficiently pungent ; but it was not the most decisive 
blow. On the evening of the day on which he wrote the above 
letter, Cobden found in the Daily News what it is odd that he 
should not have sought earlier, namely, a passage from one of the 
previous articles in the Times to which Mr. Delane had referred. 
"This language," the Times had said (Nov. 26), "so often repeated, 
and so calculated to excite discontent among the poor and half- 
informed, has really only one intelligible meaning. - ' Eeduce the 
electoral franchise ; for when you have done so you will obtain 
an assembly which will seize on the estates of the proprietors of" 
land, and divide them gratuitously among the poor.' .... It may 
be right to reduce the franchise, but certainly not as a step to spo- 
liation." 

Now, said Cobden, " you will at once perceive that, unless this 
language be unreservedly recalled, it makes the statement in your 
last letter simply a mockery and an untruth." Mr. Delane, de- 
claring that the passage taken without its context does not con- 
vey the same meaning as when taken with it, and enclosing a 
copy of the article in full, then begged to retire from the personal 
part of the controversy. 

There can now be very little difference of opinion among candid 
men as to the merits of the controversy. It is hardly possible to 
deny two propositions ; first, that the interpretation by the Times 
of what had been said at Rochdale was plainly unjust, heedless, 
and calumnious; second, that Mr. Delane's attempt to explain 
away the imputation of violence and spoliation was wholly un- 
successful. No editor ever stumbled into a more palpable scrape, 
nor chose a less fortunate way out of it. The simple and manly 
course which the Editor of the times ought to have taken was to 
say something of this kind : — " My article was written in good 
faith. It is possible, however, that the writer may have been led 
by certain conscious or unconscious prepossessions against the 
speakers to read something in Mr. Bright's speech and in yours 
which was not literally there. I now see, looking at the speeches 
more carefully, that your words could not bear the construction 
that was put upon them, and that your complaint' is justified. I 
will, as Editor, publicly retract an imputation which I now per- 
ceive to have been erroneous." 

_ As this apology was not forthcoming, Cobden was entirely jus- 
tified in publicly seizing Mr. Delane by name, and fixing upon 
him personally the misdemeanor for which he contumaciously 
made himself answerable. Anonymous journalism may be tol- 



604 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1863. 

erated and defended on account of certain incidental conveniences 
— Cobden himself wrote plenty of anonymous articles — but the 
system cannot be invoked to protect the writer or the conductor 
of a public print from liability to be called publicly to account in 
case of persistent and proved misrepresentation. On the other 
hand, it can hardly be denied that Cobden put himself in the 
wrong by accusing the conductors of the Times of corruption. 
When he talked of the " corrupt advantages " of servility to the 
Government, he made an imputation which he could not prove 
(as he found out when he tried to get up a case for Parliament), 
and which was in fact not justified. The conductors of the Times 
did not praise the friends and abuse the enemies of the Govern- 
ment, in order to have one of their contributors sent to the Ba- 
hamas, or another made a magistrate at Bow Street. The Times 
was Palmerstonian because the country was Palmerstonian, just 
as by-and-by it became Derbyite because the country seemed 
Derbyite. It condemned the talk of Cobden and Mr. Bright about 
the land, because the capitalists and the country gentlehien and 
the great nobles were frightened out of their senses by such talk. 
The conductor of a newspaper is entirely at liberty to choose what 
constituency he will attract. It pleased the Times at that day to 
domesticate itself, it was said, among the aristocracy. This may 
have been a very narrow and ignoble policy, but Mr. Delane had 
as much right to prefer to spend his evenings among dukes and 
bishops as Cobden had to spend his among manufacturers and 
merchants. One thing he had not a right to do, and that was to 
fasten upon public men propositions which it was his business to 
know that they had never made. 

That the Times was wrong upon some of the greatest questions 
of Cobden's time is quite clear. How wrong it was upon the 
Eussian War, the China War, the American Civil War, everybody 
knows. But let us be just. If the Times was wrong, so was the 
country. The newspaper only said what the directing classes of 
the country said. Cobden's own letters to his friends show as 
much as this. The Times was, in fact, the natural exponent of 
all those old ideas of national policy which Cobden was bent on 
overthrowing. Just like the Athenian Sophist, the newspaper 
taught the conventional prejudices of those who paid for it. It 
is as if, says Socrates of the Sophist and his public, a man had 
observed the appetites of a great and powerful beast, how to ap- 
proach it, why it is furious or calm, what tones soothe and what 
tones irritate it. Like the Sophist, the newspaper reflects the 
morality, the intelligence, the tone of sentiment, of its public. If 
the latter is vicious, so is the former. 

As it happened, a great organ in the penny press treated Cob- 
den, as he thought, even worse than if its price had been three- 



Mr. 59.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DELANE. 605 

pence. The Daily Telegraph declined to print Cobden's letter to 
Mr. Delane, from a rather unctuously expressed tenderness for 
Cobden's reputation ; but though it suppressed his letter, it pub- 
lished some very unfriendly comments on it. Cobden protested 
against this with much vivacity. The merciful haze of time has 
effaced the interest of much of his letter, but some portion of it is 
relevant to still unsettled questions in the constitution of the 
literary priesthood. 

The question concerns the Government on one side, and the leading London 
journal on the other. Does not that affect the public ? Is the disposal of 
Government patronage — the appointment to posts which the public pay — 
a private or personal question ? Eecollect, I repeat, that the entire contro- 
versy between us is, whether or not the subject should be shrouded in 
secrecy. It is not the question of anonymous writing that is in debate. That 
is only the red herring drawn across the true scent. We all write anonymously, 
more or less. The only objection is to the masked literary assassin. Nor is 
it a question whether writers for the press have a right to their share of public 
appointments ; nobody denies it. I do not even say that the stream of pat- 
ronage ought not to flow to the Times office ; I only contend that it should 
not run underground. 

Far from thinking that the class of whom we are speaking should be ex- 
cluded from the public service, I form a very high estimate of the fitness for 
legislative and administrative function, of those who write for the political 
instruction of the people. And it is on this account that, while I deny to no 
one the right of an honest incognito, I regret that the prevalent, and perhaps 
unavoidable habit of anonymous writing in the metropolis, should entomb, 
for all practical political purposes, so much of our best intellect, and rob so- 
ciety of the full development of that individuality, which, more than all be- 
sides, is essential to the progress and elevation of our species. In the 
provinces, the anonymous system has, practically, up to a very recent period, 
never been in operation ; because, there, every man's occupation was more or 
less known to his neighbors. And, if space permitted, I could trace the 
salutary effect of this on the political progress of the last generation ; for it 
would be easy to adduce the names of half a score of men, the conductors of 
journals in Leeds, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Norwich, &c, &c, to 
whose able, honest, and energetic efforts, as leaders of public opinion in their 
several localities, more than probably any other traceable cause, the nation is 
indebted for its successful resistance to that reactionary spirit, which, from 
the end of the last century, down to 1820, ran its course of tyrannical repres- 
sion, and filled all but the stoutest hearts with despair. These men have all 
passed away, but they should not be forgotten. And if, when my friend Dr. 
Smiles, himself a distinguished member of the fraternity, shall have com- 
pleted his biographies of our great discoverers, and improvers in physical sci- 
ence, he should give us a volume of the lives of those pioneers of political 
progress, it will be seen that their triumphs are traceable to something more 
than an investment of capital in presses and type, with an impersonal editorial 
staff, — that they were in each case due to the open and avowed writing, and 
the personal example of the individual man, who was living in clear daylight, 
under the full gaze of his neighbors, whom he was not only stimulating, but 
leading in the path of duty, and by whom he was in turn cheered and sus- 
tained. I might also, if space allowed, refer to the advantages which open 
and avowed journalism might afford to the electoral body, in the choice of 
representatives to Parliament. Those members of the House of Commons 
connected with the public press, who have been elected during my experience, 



606 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1864. 

and who, with the exception of the first named, were connected with provin- 
cial journals, — Messrs. Miall, Baines, Macguire, Fagan, Lucas, and others, — 
whatever may be the differences of opinion as to their views, will be acknowl- 
edged by all who have sat with them as having been, in every case, among 
the foremost of their party, for political intelligence and honor. 

I have said enough to show that I take a more exalted view than most 
men, of the mission of those who instruct the public through the newspaper 
press, and that, while asserting their title to the most honorable posts, I am 
assailing only a system by which they are huddled clandestinely into inferior 
employments, as the result of a secret and illicit intercourse with the Govern- 
ment of the day. And I revert to the question — has not the country a right 
to be informed, on my responsibility, that this illicit intercourse has been 
carried on between the Times and the Government ; and is the Daily Tele- 
graph justified in intercepting from the public, so far as lies in its power, all 
knowledge of the fact, on the plea that it is a personal matter ? 

Here we may leave the subject, merely remarking that to the 
present writer it seems that the word " illicit " in the letter is en- 
tirely misplaced and unintelligible. There was only one way of 
effectually checking the excessive authority of a journal which 
had abused it ; this was to encourage the establishment of com- 
petitors. Cobden did as much towards this desirable end as any 
one, by his share in the reduction of the paper duty, which was 
what made the cheap press possible. The multiplication of news- 
papers and periodicals has had the further effect of clearing away 
the old charlatanry and the mystery of authorship and editorship. 
The names of all important journalists are now coming to be prac- 
tically as well known as the names of important Members of Par- 
liament, and this change has naturally been followed by that more 
careful sense of responsibility which Cobden was quite right in 
insisting upon. 



CHAPTER XXXYI. 

THE DANISH WAR — LAST SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT — 
CORRESPONDENCE. 

It was truly said by a Member of the House of Commons at the 
time, that if the Session of 1864 were remembered at all twenty 
years afterwards, it would only be remembered for the answer 
which it gave to the question, Shall or shall not England take 
part in the struggle between Germany and Denmark ? This en- 
titles it to a notable place in any account of Cobden. The answer 
that was then given was as remarkable a triumph for Cobden's 
principles, as the result of the Don Pacifico debate had been a 



JlT.60.] THE DANISH WAR. 607 

victory for Lord Palmerston fourteen years before. The great 
wave of Nationality which was the moving force in Europe for so 
many years after the storm of 1848, now swept into Schleswig- 
Holstein, and brought Danes and Germans into violent collision. 
We may here content ourselves with Cobden's own account of 
what he justly called that most complicated of all questions. " In 
1852," he said, " by the mischievous activity of our Foreign Office, 
seven diplomatists were brought round a green table in London to 
settle the destinies of a million of people in the two provinces of 
Schleswig and Holstein, without the slightest reference to the 
wants and wishes or the tendencies or the interests of that people. 
The preamble of the treaty which was there and then agreed to 
stated that what those seven diplomatists were going to do was 
to maintain the integrity of the Danish monarchy, and to sustain 
the balance of power in Europe. Kings, Emperors, Princes, were 
represented at that meeting, but the people had not the slightest 
voice or right in the matter. They settled * the treaty, the object 
of which was to draw closer the bonds between those two prov- 
inces and Denmark. The tendency of the great majority of the 
people of those provinces — about a million of them altogether — 
was altogether in the direction of Germany. From that time to 
this year the treaty was followed by constant agitation and dis- 
cord ; two wars have sprung out of it, and it has ended in the 
treaty being torn to pieces by two of the Governments who were 
prominent parties to the treaty." * 

The question was whether England should go to the aid of the 
weak Power against the two strong ones. Lord Palmerston and 
Lord Eussell were in favor of vigorous intervention, both before 
the war broke out, and after the failure of the London Conference. 
They undoubtedly encouraged Denmark to resist. They were held 
back by colleagues, against whose timidity the two veterans bit- 
terly murmured to one another. 2 When the London Conference 
broke up, there was a universal apprehension that the active party 
in the Cabinet would still carry the day, and that Great Britain 
would find herself committed without an ally to the terrible peril 
of a war with Germany. 

" At the end of June," as Cobden described it, " the Prime Min- 
ister announced that he was going to produce the protocols, and 
to state the decision of the Government upon the question. He 
gave a week's notice of this intention, and then I witnessed what 
has convinced me that we have achieved a revolution in our for- 
eign policy. The whippers-in — you know what I mean — those 
on each side of the House who undertake to take stock of the 
number and the opinions of their followers — the whippers-in 

1 Speeches, ii. 341. 2 Mr. Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. 437, 438. 



608 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1864. 

during the week were taking soundings of the inclination of Mem- 
bers of the House of Commons. And then came up from the 
country such a manifestation of opinion against war, that day 
after day during that eventful week Member after Member from 
the largest constituencies went to those who acted for the Govern- 
ment in Parliament, and told them distinctly that they would not 
allow war on any such matters as Schleswig and Holstein. Then 
came surging up from all the great seats and centres of manufac- 
turing and commercial activity one unanimous veto upon war for 
this matter of Schleswig and Holstein." 1 The result was that 
when Lord Palmerston came down to the House on that mem- 
orable afternoon of the 27th of June, it was to make the pro- 
foundly satisfactory, but profoundly humiliating announcement, 
that there was to be no war. They had ascertained, he said, that 
France declined to take any active part in support of Denmark. 
They had ascertained that Eussia would take no part. The whole 
brunt of the effort recpiisite for dislodging the German troops 
would fall upon this country alone. Under these circumstances, 
they had not thought it consistent with their duty to advise the 
Sovereign to undertake the task. Lord Palmerston wound up his 
statement by menaces of great things to be done by the Govern- 
ment if Prussia and Austria went a step further in certain possi- 
ble directions. These curiously hollow and ill-timed threats were 
received with loud shouts of derision, and Mr. Disraeli had the 
whole House with him when he denounced them as spiritless and 
senseless. He had the House with him when he went on to say 
that, judging from the past, he would prefer that the affairs of the 
country should be conducted on the principles of the Member for 
Eochdale and the Member for Birmingham. In that case the 
consequences might be the same, but the position of England 
would be more consistent and more dignified. At least these two 
gentlemen would threaten nobody ; at least they would not have 
told Denmark that if she were attacked she would not find her- 
self alone ; at least they would not have exasperated Germany by 
declaiming in the full Parliament of England against the " aggra- 
vated outrages " of her policy ; at least they would not have lured 
Denmark on by delusive counsels and fallacious hopes. 

When in course of time Mr. Disraeli moved a vote of censure, 
Cobden did not let the opportunity slip. The inherent strength 
of his position made his speech even more free than usual from 
bitterness or personality. It was felt that the humiliating break- 
down of the Foreign Office, and the meddling and impotent 
diplomacy of which Lord Palmerston was now the traditional 
representative, was a complete justification of the great principles 

1 Speeches, ii. 344. 



Ms. 60.] THE DANISH WAR. 609 

of non-intervention as he had preached them for a whole genera- 
tion. For the last time, as it was destined to be, he pressed home 
the old arguments for taking all reasonable and possible precau- 
tions for avoiding Continental quarrels. " Our country," he said, 
" requires peace. Some people think it is very degrading, very 
base, that an Englishman should speak of his country as requir- 
ing peace, ami as being entitled to enjoy its blessings; and if we 
allude to our enormous commercial and industrial engagements as 
a reason why we should avoid these petty embroilments, we are 
told that we are selfish and grovelling in our politics. But I say 
we were very wrong to take such measures as were calculated to 
extend our commerce, unless we were prepared to use prudential 
precautions to keep our varied manufacturing and mercantile 
operations free from the mischiefs of unnecessary war. You have 
in this country engagements of the most extensive and compli- 
cated kind. You have extended your operations during the last 
twenty-five years to such a degree, that you are now actually ex- 
porting three times as much as you did twenty-five years ago — 
that is, your foreign commerce, and the manufactures on which it 
depends, have grown in a quarter of a century twice as much as 
they grew in a thousand years before." — (July 5.) 

Lord Eobert Cecil, who followed him in the debate, observed 
caustically that though Cobden was about to support the Govern- 
ment against the vote of censure, his enthusiasm for them was 
not very warm. The Member for Kochdale, he said, was about as 
good a friend of Her Majesty's Government, as Her Majesty's 
Government had been of the kingdom of Denmark ; there was, 
however, the remarkable difference between the two cases, that 
whereas the Government gave to Denmark abundance of good 
words but no material aid, the honorable Member was about to 
give the Government all his material aid, while he accompanied 
it with a full dose of what certainly could not be called fair words. 
When the division was taken, the Government won by a majority 
of eighteen, but Lord Palmerston must have felt that the policy 
of Free Trade had, among many other changes which it had 
wrought, finally taken the supreme control of peace and war out 
of the hands of the old territorial oligarchy. 

Cobden made two other elaborate speeches in the course of the 
session. One was introductory of a series of resolutions on a 
subject on which he had long entertained strong views, the great 
extension of Government manufacturing establishments. In this, 
as in his views on the greater subject of Free Trade, Cobden was 
able to quote the illustrious authority of Burke in favor of the 
principle which he was now advocating, that the Government 
should not be allowed to manufacture for itself any article which 
could be obtained from private producers in a competitive mar- 

39 



610 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1864. 

ket. 1 The other important speech had been made earlier in the 
session, and carried his views of foreign policy into a field where 
their application was becoming, and has remained, more urgently 
necessary than it was even in the sphere of Continental Europe. 
He moved a resolution to the effect that the policy of non-inter- 
vention by force of arms in the internal political affairs of foreign 
countries, which we profess to observe in Europe and America, 
should also be Observed in our intercourse with the Empire of 
China. 2 What gave special point to the resolution was the fact 
that at this time we were in danger of repeating the same vio- 
lence and the same impolicy which had worked such confusion in 
China, in forcing intercourse upon the people of Japan. Now, as 
on many occasions before, Cobden showed his sense of the danger 
that the cry for new markets might become as mischievous as 
the old cry for extended dominion. The enormous expansion of 
manufacturing industry had made some of the commercial class 
as ready to use violence in opening fresh fields for the sake of 
gain, as the aristocracy had ever been to use it in satisfying their 
national pride or military ambition. Cobden's demonstration of 
the perils which lie before us on this side, and he was not ashamed 
to consider moral as well as material perils, still remains as apt 
and as timely as it was in his own day. 

Cobden wrote his longest letters at this time to Mr. Sumner 
and M. Chevalier. He protested, as we see, against the early ten- 
dencies of his American friend, to imitate the worst faults of the 
worst kind of European diplomacy ; and to his French friend he 
put a question as to what might happen in 1870, which subse- 
quent events made curiously significant. 

Character of President Lincoln. 

" Jan. '7. ( To Mr. Sumner) — You will soon begin to busy 
yourselves with the task of President-making. I hope you will 
re-elect Mr. Lincoln. He is rising in reputation in Europe apart 
from the success of the North. He possesses great moral quali- 
ties, which in the long-run tell more on the fortunes of the world 
in these days than mere intellect. I always thought his want of 
enlarged experience was a disadvantage to him. But he knows 
his own countrymen evidently, and that is the main point. And 
being a stranger to the rest of the world, he has the less tempta- 
tion to embark in foreign controversies or quarrels. Nothing 
shows his solid sense more than the pertinacity with which he 
avoids all outside complications. His truthful elevation of char- 

1 This excellent speech, which was Cohden's last performance in the House of 
Commons, is to he found in Hansard, clxxvi., July 22, 1864. 

2 May 31, 1864. 



Mt. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 611 

acter, and his somewhat stolid placidity of nature, put it quite be- 
yond the power of other governments to fasten a quarrel on him, 
and inspire the fullest confidence in those who are committing 
themselves to the side of the North. I say all this on the as- 
sumption that he has irrevocably committed himself to ' abolition ' 
as the result of the war. Any compromise on that question would 
cover your cause with eternal infamy, and render the sanguinary 
civil war with which you have desolated the North and South a 
useless butchery." 

The American War. 

"Midhurst, Aug. 18, 1864 ( „ ) — I still look forward with 
unabated confidence to the triumph of the North. But I begin 
to speculate on the effect which the failure of Grant's campaign 
may have on your politics. Sometimes I speculate on the possi- 
bility of your imitating the course which political parties often 
follow here, and that your Democrats, who appear to be for peace, 
may come into power, and carry out even more successfully than 
your party could do the policy of war and abolition of slavery. 
Like Peel in his course on Free Trade and Catholic Emancipa- 
tion, they would have the advantage of being sure of the support 
of the honest advocates of the policy they adopted, even although 
they were nominally in the ranks of their political opponents. 
What I most dread is your falling into political confusion in the 
North ! That would be a severe blow to the principle of self- 
government everywhere." 

Garibaldi's Visit to London. 

"May 3, 1864. (To M. Chevalier.) — I thought you were now 
sufficiently acquainted with England not to attach undue impor- 
tance to the Garibaldi affair, in so far as our ministers are con- 
cerned. 1 They of course were only acting a political part in 
order to catch a little of the popularity which for the moment 
surrounded the Italian hero. You do not of course suppose that 
Palmerston entertains any views in common with Garibaldi. It 
would be difficult indeed to show that he has any views at all be- 
yond the wish to hold office by flattering the popular passions of 
the hour. The people were quite sincere in the homage they 
offered to the Italian. 2 They believed in his honesty and disin- 

1 Garibaldi arrived in England on April 3. The wild enthusiasm with which 
he was received by the densest masses that ever attended a procession in London, 
made the Government uncomfortable. By some intrigue, the great hero of the 
European Revolution was hurried out of the country in the Duke of Sutherland's 
yacht. 

2 ''London, May 10. (To Mr. T. B. Potter.)— .... The working people in 



612 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1864. 

terestedness, and they know him to be a good fighter ! There is 
a certain antique picturesqueness about the man too which 
attracts the sight-loving multitude. But there are perhaps other 
reasons why the middle classes share the enthusiasm of the pop- 
ulace. They believe him to be an enemy of the Pope, and you 
know what ardent Protestants we are ! The Dukes and Duch- 
esses took possession of Garibaldi to keep him out of the hands 
of the democrats, and when they had finished feting him, they 
sent him straight home to Caprera in a Duke's yacht. It was 
expected that he would make a tour in the north of England, and 
all arrangements had been made to receive him in Manchester, 
Newcastle, and other places. But it was feared by his aristo- 
cratic acquaintances in London that if he went to the provinces 
he might be talking too revolutionarily, and so he was persuaded 
to go away home, greatly to the disgust of the country democrats, 
who consider themselves ' done.' All this is merely the play of 
our political game, in which the so-called statesmen and minis- 
ters of the Crown do not act a very dignified part. The affairs of 
the Conference are not very promising. It seems that we are to 
be thankful that France and England are not on better terms. 
Last autumn France was apparently willing to go to war with 
Russia for Poland, and England declined. Now England seems 
to be desirous of going to war with Germany for Denmark, and 
France declines ! So we have preserved peace in consequence of 
the suspension of the entente cordiale." 

Free Trade in France. 

"27 Victoria Street, Westminster, June 27. ( „ ) — I ought 
to have written to you more promptly, to thank you for the very 
kind invitation conveyed in your last letter. Be assured that it 
would give my wife and me very great pleasure to come and pay 
Madame Chevalier and you a long family visit in the Herault. I 
am, however, afraid it will not be in my power to avail myself of 
your friendly offer of hospitality. In the present state of my 
health I am obliged to look forward to the possibility of being 
compelled to go abroad in the winter. You know that the cli- 
mate of England from May to October is the finest in the world, 
and gives no excuse for the invalid to leave home. I must there- 

the metropolis are very proud of their reception of Garibaldi, and those of the 
provinces are hoping for another opportunity of feting him. 

"When will the masses of this country begin to think of home politics ? Our 
friend Bright observed, as he gazed from a window in Parliament Street or the tens 
of thousands that cheered the Italian, ' If the people would only make a few such 
demonstrations for themselves, we could do something for them.' But nothing 
except foreign politics seems to occupy the attention of the people, press, or Par- 
liament." 



Mr. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 613 

fore remain with my family in the summer, in the fear that my 
health may compel me to go to the south in the winter. I should 
be delighted to have the opportunity of passing a few weeks with 
you. Among other matters we could talk over the progress of 
Free Trade in France. I confess I am not satisfied that you do 
not continue to make further reforms, if only to guard against 
reaction in those already made. Time is passing. It is now four 
years since we arranged your tariff. Are you sure that in 187.0 
you will be so completely under the Free Trade regime as to pre- 
vent the government of that day (God knows what it may be) 
from going back to protection after the Anglo-French Treaty ex- 
pires. 

" We are in a critical political situation here. It is not easy to 
say what will happen in a week or two in the House. The Whigs 
are in a very sorry plight. But the Tories are so stupid that 
they seem hardly capable of profiting by the, blunders of their 
opponents. The Opposition is to meet to-morrow at Lord Derby's, 
to consider the next step. If they move a resolution implying 
censure on the Government for not having gone to war, they will 
not be supported by a majority of the House, for both sides are 
very much opposed to war in behalf of the Danes. I have been 
much struck with this pacific sentiment in both parties. It is 
quite different from what it was previous to the Crimean War." 

Tone of English. Politics. 

" Midhurst, Nov. 5. ( „ ) — I am glad to hear that you and 
Madame Chevalier are returning in good health to Paris. It is a 
long time since we exchanged letters. But I have been vegetat- 
ing here ever since the close of the Session of Parliament, and 
have had no news to communicate to distant friends. I have not 
yet made up my mind whether I shall leave home for a more 
sunny region this winter. It will depend on my health and the 
temperature of our English winter. I do not contemplate in any 
case going to Africa. It may be necessary for me to go to South- 
ern Europe. But I confess I have a great repugnance to making 
a journey of a thousand miles merely on an errand of health. 

" I have received the Debats with its article on the Metric Sys- 
tem. We have made a first step ; but when I think with what 
Chinese slowness we march in the path of reform, it makes me 
despair of living to see this useful change carried into effect. 

" Our politics are very stagnant. How could they be other- 
wise ?..... But there is one great change amounting to a revo- 
lution which has been accomplished in our foreign policy. After 
the fiasco of last Session on the Danish question, our Foreign 
Office will never again attempt to involve us in any European 



614 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1864. 

entanglements for the Balance of Power, or for any dynastic pur- 
pose. Henceforth we shall observe an absolute abstention from 
Continental politics. Non-intervention is the policy of all future 
governments in this country. So let the Grand Turk take care 
of himself, for we shall never fight his battle again. Until the 
American war is at an end we shall not recover our natural tone 
of politics in this country. I am still convinced the South will 
have to succumb. The geographical difficulties of separation 
have always appeared to me to be insurmountable. The mouth 
of the Mississippi alone is enough to prevent Jeff Davis from 
establishing his slave empire. It would be easier to establish an 
' East Anglia ' by the secession of Kent and Essex at the mouth 
of the Thames, than to set up an independent State in Louisiana. 
It is not a question ever to be discussed. It is an impossibility. 
Have you not like myself been astonished at the financial resour- 
ces of the North ? I have just seen a pamphlet recently published 
in Washington by Mr. Blodget on the financial and industrial re- 
sources of the Union. I have been astounded by the facts and 
figures it gives from Government returns, railway traffics, &c, 
showing the almost incredible and fabulous increase of every kind 
of production in the Northern States during the last three years 
of war. It is quite clear that America stands on a different foot- 
ing from the old world, and that its powers, whether in peace or 
war, are to be measured by a different standard. In comparing 
their powers of endurance or recovery, we must consider the one 
to be a man of twenty-five and the other of sixty. . . . 

International Law. 

"Sept. 3. (To Henry Ashworth, Esq) — The great fallacy that 
runs through Eoundell Palmer's arguments is in the assumption 
that ' International Law ' is a fixed and immutable code like the 
Ten Commandments, and that it would be wrong in us now to set 
up any new precedents or innovations. Now the whole of what 
is called International Maritime Law is mere precedents, generally 
emanating from our own Courts, and then adopted by the Ameri- 
cans in times and circumstances quite different from the present. 

" We agreed to a fundamental change in the bases of the Mari- 
time Code at the Congress of Paris after the Crimean War in 
1856, and the great error has been that we did not seize the 
opportunity of the American war to still further relax the old 
system in the interests of non-combatants at sea. Instead of 
which Eoundell Palmer, who is a lawyer and not a statesman, has 
been put forward as the exponent of British policy, and he has 
laid down principles which will tell fearfully against us at a 
future time- .... The declaration of Paris in 1856 against priva- 



Mi. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 615 

teering becomes a mere pretentious hoax, when we see that ships 
such as the ' Georgia ' and ' Tallahassee ' are recognized as ships of 
war, merely because they carry a bit of paper called a ' Commis- 
sion ' instead of one called a ' Letter of Marque.' It is most 
important that you should disabuse our ship-owners from their 
delusion that this declaration against privateering will be of any 
benefit to them after such precedents as we are now establishing 
in the event of our being at war." 

The Law of Blockade. 

" Sept. 9. ' ( „ ) — The Blockade Laws are about as rascally 
an invention as the old Corn Laws. Suppose Tom Sayers lived 
in a street, and on the opposite side lived a shopkeeper with whom 
he has been in the habit of dealing. Tom quarrels with his shop- 
keeper and forthwith sends him a challenge to fight, which is 
accepted. Tom, being a powerful man, sends word to each and 
every householder in the street that he is going to fight the shop- 
keeper, and that until he has finished fighting no person in the 
street must have any dealings with the shopkeeper. ' We have 
nothing to do with your quarrel,' say the inhabitants, ' and you 
have no right to stop our dealings with the shopkeeper.' 

" The argument is just as good on a large scale as on a small 
one — for fifty millions as for one person. The various govern- 
ments of England have been the chief and almost only supporters 
of the blockade laws, and no nation on earth will be so much 
injured by them, not to say a word of their injustice. The sooner 
the blockade laws follow the Corn and Navigation laws the better 
it will be for all nations, and for England in particular." 

The Danish War. 

"July 1. {To Mr. Ashworth.) — .... The House of Com 
mons is remarkably pacific. I have been much struck with the 
all but universal feeling among members on both sides against 
going to war on this Danish question. I really don't believe there 
are fifty men in the House, who, if their votes were to decide the 
question, would vote for war. It is the more remarkable, inas- 
much as the press had been very warlike, and full of threats and 
braggadocio. There was a section of the Cabinet quite ready to 
do anything for popularity. But the whipper-in carried such a 
report of the tone of the House, as to decide the Government to 
do nothing. 

"I attribute this remarkable change in the temper of the House 
since the Crimean war to the enormous amount of material inter- 
ests at stake. 



616 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1864. 

"We are exporting now at the rate of 160,000,000^. a year, 
threefold our trade twenty years ago. This must have given an 
immense force to the Conservative peace principles of the country. 
The House of Commons represents the wealth of the country 
though not its numbers, and I have no doubt the members hear 
from all the great seats of our commercial ship-owning and manu- 
facturing industries that the busy prosperous people there wish to 
be at peace. This is one of the effects which we advocates of 
Free Trade always predicted and desired as the consequence of 
extended commercial operations. But the manner in which the 
principle is now operating is most remarkable " 

" July 26. ( „ ) — .... I am glad you liked my last 
speeches. One has more and more the painful impression that it 
is after all mere barren talk. I do not see how "any material im- 
provement in public affairs is possible, so long as this old man at 
the head can contrive to use all parties for his own ends. With 
Gladstone and Gibson for his colleagues, and with a tacit conni- 
vance from a section of the Tories, there can be no honesty in our 
party life and little chance for ridding ourselves of the incubus, 
excepting with the aid of Time, which I suppose will enforce a 
superannuation upon the old gentleman some day. 

" It would have given me very great enjoyment to have visited 
you at your Highland box, but I go quietly among my children 
at Dunford during the fine weather, for I always feel under the 
liability of being induced to leave home for a southern clime in 
the winter. During the Session I see little of my young people, 
and I really think it is as healthful as it is pleasant to relax after 
the turmoil of the House and the clubs among the minds of 
children. I remember hearing Wakley say in the House, when 
O'Connell first showed symptoms of giving way, that if he would 
withdraw from politics and live with his grandchildren, he might 
last for ten years. But he died in a twelvemonth." 



CHAPTEK XXXVIII. 

SPEECH AT ROCHDALE — THE LAND QUESTION — CORRESPONDENCE 
— LAST DAYS AND DEATH. 

In November Cobden went down to Eochdale to make his annual 
speech to his constituents. He was not in very good spirits when 
he started, and the exertion of travelling and of speaking to an 
enormous audience lowered his powers still further. It was the 



2ET.60.] THE LAND QUESTION. 617 

largest meeting on one floor that he had ever attended. The 
speech % itself is one of his longest. 1 Mr. Bright, who was absent 
at Leamington, said that, when he read it, he marvelled how Cob- 
den could have made such a speech when times were so dull. 
Besides being one of his longest, it is perhaps the one that gives 
the best idea of his manner, and opens the easiest view to his the- 
ory of the foreign policy which is proper for Great Britain in her 
existing circumstances. We see in it to perfection what Mr. Dis- 
raeli commended in him, that careful art of avoiding to drive his 
arguments to an extremity, which was one of the secrets of his 
singular persuasiveness. 

It was in this speech that he made the memorable declaration 
on the Land Question. We have already seen (above, p. 601) what 
he said the year before in the same place : that the English peas- 
antry had no parallel on the face of the earth ; that there is no 
other country in the world where the peasantry is entirely di- 
vorced from the land. 2 He now said : — "If I were five-and- 
twenty or thirty, instead of being unhappily twice that number 
of years, I would take Adam Smith in hand — I would not go 
beyond him, I would have no politics in it — I would take Adam 
Smith in hand, and I would have a League for free trade in land 
just as we had a League for free trade in corn. You will find just 
the same authority in Adam Smith for one as for the other ; and 
if it were taken up, as it must be taken up to succeed, not as a 
political, revolutionary, Eadical, Chartist notion, but taken up on 
politico-economical grounds, the agitation would be certain to suc- 
ceed." 3 What it was that he precisely meant by free trade in 
land he did not more particularly specify. His reference to Adam 
Smith is enough to show that he contemplated the abolition of 
entails and other artificial means of tying land up in long settle- 
ments ; and, like all men of sense, he constantly advocated im- 
proved facilities in the machinery of transfer. How much further 
he was prepared to go, we cannot tell ; but there is no evidence 
that, in England and Scotland, he was inclined to favor the 
French system of compulsory partition, and there is abundant 
evidence that he was not' likely to sympathize with any of the 
vague projects for what their authors call the nationalization of 
the land. On the other hand, it is probable that he would have 
been friendly to the legislative recognition, not only in Ireland 
but in Great Britain, of the principle of Tenant Eight. In one of 
the most effective of his speeches in the time of the Corn Law, 
which has been already referred to (see above, pp. 214, 215), he 
insisted upon security of tenure as the first condition of prosper- 
ity alike to landlord, tenant, and laborer. This security he ex- 

1 Speeches, ii. 339. November 23, 1864. 2 Speeches, ii. 116. 

' 3 Speeches, ii. 367. See Wealth of Nations, Book iii. chap. ii. 



618 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1865.' 

pected to find in leases, that should contain none of those restrict- 
ive covenants which now so constantly hamper the tenant in the 
manner of applying his capital and carrying on his business. 
Perhaps he might have been persuaded that leases themselves are 
found by the people concerned to be a practical impediment to the 
free movement of capital; and in this way might have come 
round to such a form of legislative Tenant Eight as would give 
the security of a lease without involving an inconveniently long 
duration. However this may be, we have as a matter of fact no 
complete scheme of Cobden's views on the English Land Ques- 
tion. 1 His solution of the question of the same name in Ireland, 
we have already seen (above, pp. 329, 330, 344, 375). He would 
" give Ireland to the Irish." 

Although the few sentences which concerned a Land League did 
most to startle attention at the moment, Cobden's last speech 
dealt much more fully with other topics, and covered a very wide 
space of political ground. The exhaustion after such an effort 
was severe. " I should have been well enough," Cobden told Mr. 
Paulton, " if I could have gone to bed for four and twenty hours 
after the speech. But the next day Mr. Kemp had a reception of 
two hundred of the leading Liberals, and I spent the whole even- 
ing in shaking hands and incessant talking to relays of friends." 
The journey home made things worse. He was afraid to rest in 
London, lest he should find himself compelled by illness to remain 
there. On the whole, when he reached home, he considered that 
he had escaped tolerably well, but he made up his mind that he 
must never attend another public meeting in the winter season. 
As it was, he found that he had suffered more harm than he sup- 
posed. Two months after his return he gave the following ac- 
count of himself to Mr. Paulton : — 

"Jan. 25. — I have never before had such a shake. I came 
back from my imprudent trip to the North out of order from top 
to toe. Besides my old foe (which the Doctor here calls ' nervous 
asthma'), from which my breathing was so obstructed that I 
could hardly move a limb, I had an attack of bronchitis, which 
threatened to extend to my lungs, and my stomach was much dis- 
ordered with feverish symptoms. Our little apothecary was very 
assiduous, aod I am much better. The asthma lias entirely dis- 
appeared, and I can walk upstairs without any of the old symp- 
toms. But I am thinner, and without air or exercise how can 
any one be well ? I have not been out of doors since I returned 

1 Mr. Thorold Rogers, who had many conversations with him on the subject, 
says that by free trade in land Cobden meant "the extension of the principle of 
free exchange in all its fulness to landed estates, and the removal of all restrictions 
on its transfer, either voluntarily, should the owner desire to sell it, or involunta- 
rily if the owner becomes embarrassed." — Cobden and Modem Political Opinion, 
chap. iii. p. 89. 



Mt. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 619 

home. This cold weather keeps up the old irritation in my throat, 
and I am not free from cough. In fact what I want is a fortnight 
of July sunshine. This has been the most disagreeable winter I 
have ever known here. Generally we get sunshine in the middle 
of the day, if even for only two or three hours. This year, although 
the average temperature has not been lower than usual, there have 
been great fluctuations, with much moisture and cloudiness. At 
present the ground is covered with snow of unusual depth. 

" I am deeply obliged to you and Mrs. Paulton for your kind 
invitation. At present I cannot entertain the idea of going to 
town. I should not be able to attend the House, and in anything 
like my present state of health, home is the only proper place for 
me. Besides there never was a time when so little motive existed 
to lead a man to run risks of life and health in the fulfilment of 
his public duties The talk in official circles is that the elec- 
tion is to take place in June. That is the season of the year which 
will suit me best. But really what right has anybody to pretend 
to take the burden of affairs of state on his shoulders, when he 
has arrived at an age when he can hardly bear the weight of his 
own infirmities ? I ought to give up public life. So nauseous is 
the present state of parliamentary parties, that if I knew the gen- 
eral election would give the old Premier a renewed rule, I should 
secretly pray that Mr. Brett 1 would relieve me from the task of 
being a further witness, if not accomplice, to the imposture ! " 

His time was filled by vigilant observation of affairs, and by 
his unfailing practice of correspondence. The struggle in America 
occupied his thoughts incessantly, partly because he was looking 
to the questions that would remain for adjustment after the war 
had come to an end. One of his last letters to Mr. Sumner 
touched on this point : — - 

"Jan. 11, 1865. — I agree with a remark in the concluding 
passage of your last letter, that you are fighting the battle of 
liberalism in Europe as well as the battle of freedom in America. 
It is only necessary to observe who are your friends and who 
your opponents in the Old World, to be satisfied that great princi- 
ples are at stake in your terrible conflict. But it is not by victo- 
ries in the field alone that you will help the cause of the masses 
in Europe. End when it may, the civil war will, in the eyes of 
mankind, have conferred quite as much 'glory,' so far as mere 
fighting goes, on the South as on the North. It is in your supe- 
riority in other things that you can alone by your example elevate 
the Old World. I confess I am very jealous of your taking a 
course which seems to hold up our old doings as an excuse for 
your present short-comings. Hence I was sorry to see your 

1 The present Lord Justice Brett. He was now before the constituency of Roch- 
dale as the Conservative candidate. 



620 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1865. 

republication of the old indictment against us in your very able 
and learned pamphlet. My answer is, that your only title to 
existence as a Eepublic is that you are supposed to be superior 
to what we were sixty years ago. Had you returned the ' Florida ' 
to Bahia without a moment's delay, cashiered the captain of the 
' Wachusett,' and offered to pay for the support of the survivors 
who were dependent on those who were killed or drowned in that 
wicked outrage, your friends would have felt some inches taller 
here. That would have been the true answer to the taunts of 
our Tory press, and not the disinterment of the misdeeds of our 
Tory Government to show that they did something almost as 
bad as the Federal commander. 

" I was much pleased with your speech on the Canadian diffi- 
culty in the South, when you spoke of avoiding all quarrels with 
other countries, and devoting yourself to the one sole object of 
putting down the rebellion. I am not blind to the fact that very 
grave questions will stand over for adjustment between your 
country and ours. Some of them, such as the injury done to 
your whole shipping interest by the losses and destruction of a 
port, can hardly be settled by governments. They will, I fear, 
invite future retaliations on our shipping by citizens of your coun- 
try, if we should ever go to war. But all these questions must be 
postponed till your war is ended, and then probably the whole 
world may be ready for a thorough revolution in international 
maritime law. It will be for you to show the way." 

The topic of national expenditure kept its place in his mind, 
and the plans for the defence of Canada stirred his liveliest dis- 
gust. He expressed his views in two elaborate letters to Mr. 
Gladstone, with a sort of forlorn hope that they might through 
him obtain a hearing in the Cabinet. Excepting Mr. Gladstone 
himself, however, and Mr. Gibson, there was nobody in the Cabinet 
who felt the least inclination to listen. Even Mr. Gladstone 
thought that his correspondent did less than justice to the Gov- 
ernment, and more than justice to the Canadians. Mr. Bright, 
meanwhile, was working for their views in a different direction, 
insisting on the proposition for which he had been fighting ever 
since the repeal of the Corn Law, that nothing good could be done 
until the representation was improved. He began the new year 
with a powerful speech at Birmingham, to Cobden's great satis- 
faction : — 

" Jan. 16. (To Mr. Bright) — I see your meeting at Birming- 
ham is fixed. You will, I suppose, have something to say about 
Eeform. What is wanted is to slay and bury those delusive 
projects which have of late owed their existence to men who wish 
to mystify the simple question of principle, and lead the public 
astray after crotchety details of their own. Of these Lord Grey 



jEt. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 621 

and Buxton are the most notable. But I suppose you are aware 
that Stuart Mill has indorsed Hare's incomprehensible scheme. 
It is a pity that Mill, who on the whole is so admirable in his 
sympathies and tendencies, should give his sanction to these 
novelties. (I got a letter the other day from an old Leaguer in 
Australia, saying that the Protectionists there are quoting Mill to 
justify a young community in resorting for a time to Protection.) 
It has always appeared to me that the best way to meet the 
wishes of those who honestly fear that particular classes or bodies 
of the community may be unrepresented, is to make the electoral 
districts as diversified as possible. With this view I would allow 
each constituency to return one representative. Thus, for in- 
stance, if Birmingham had six members, they' should be elected 
by six wards. This would give every section of the community 
the opportunity of suiting itself. The idea of giving representa- 
tion to minorities is an absurdity. It strikes at the very founda- 
tions of representative government by majorities. It ignores the 
fact that opinion is always represented by minorities as well as 
majorities, or why should there be party divisions at all ? l 

" Has it ever occurred to you to ascertain what was the old 
borough franchise ? In Forster's ' Life of Eliot,' giving a very 
detailed account of the parliamentary and constitutional struggle 
between the House of Commons and Charles I., at the period 
antecedent to the revolutionary conflict, there are constant notices 
of trials before Parliamentary Committees to decide the question 
whether the right of voting belonged to the ' commonalty in 
general,' or to privileged corporations or classes. The decisions 
seem to have been almost always in favor of the ' commonalty in 
general.' By this phrase I suppose was meant all householders 
at least. I dare say the polling-papers are preserved of the old 

1 The last letter that Cobden wrote was on this subject. It was addressed a 
week before his death (March 22, 1865) to Mr. T. B. Potter, who had sent him 
a letter from Mr. Mill : — " Everything from him is entitled to respectful considera- 
tion. _ But I confess, after the best attention to the proposed representation of 
minorities which I can give it, I am so stupid as to fail to see its merits. He speaks 
•of 50,000 electors having to elect five members, and that 30,000 may elect them all, 
and to obviate this he would give the 20,000 minority two votes. But I would 
give only one vote to each elector, and one representative to each constituency. 
Instead of the 50,000 returning five in a lump, I would have five constituencies of 
10,000, each returning one member. . Thus, if the metropolis, for example, were 
entitled, with a fair distribution of electoral power, to 40 votes, I would divide it 
into 40 districts or wards, each to return one member ; and in this way every class 
and every variety of opinion would have a chance of a fair representation. Belgravia, 
Marylebone, St. James's, St. Giles's, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, &c, would each and 
all have their members. I don't know any better plan for giving all opinions a 
chance of being heard ; and, after all, it is opinions that are to be represented. If 
the minority have a faith that their opinions, and not those of the majority, are 
the true ones, then let them agitate and discuss until their principles are in the 
ascendant. This is the motive for political action and the healthy agitation of 
public life." 



622 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1865. 

elections, and it would be curious to see the proportions the voters 
bore to the whole population. I see it stated that in 1628 there 
was a contested election for Coventry, when the successful candi- 
dates had a majority of 600 votes. There must have been a much 
larger proportion of the whole population voting then than is 
polled now. 

" I was talking with Durrant Cooper, one of the leading mem- 
bers of our Sussex Archaeological Society, and told him if, instead 
of devoting a volume a year to the remains of old castles and 
monasteries, they would give us some facts throwing light upon 
the social and political condition of the inhabitants in former 
ages, it would be a much more useful employment of their tal- 
ents. It is astonishing what a mass of facts of old date are in 
existence. The secretary of our County Society once said that 
an itinerary of King John's reign, giving his whereabouts every 
day of his life, could be given if worth the trouble, with as much 
accuracy as that of William the Fourth. 

" I have no recent letters from America, Goldwin Smith says 
he has come back a confirmed radical and free churchman, and 

less impatient because more assured of liberal progress His 

pen is a power in the State." 

" Jan. 22. ( „ ) — I hope you have returned safely home, 
and if you are well after your double effort at Birmingham, I 
congratulate you on your bronchial organization. I was satisfied 
and pleased with your speech in the Town Hall. I think you 
took a very wise course in using the language of warning to those 
ruling factions who are alone responsible for the present state of 
the Eeform question. Not that it will have the desired effect in 
that quarter, where nothing but fear of something worse happen- 
ing ever leads to the concession of any reform. Unfortunately, 
in the case of the proposed change in the representation, involv- 
ing, as our privileged classes believe, the destruction of their priv- 
ileges, nothing worse than this spectre can be presented to their 
imagination ; and they will contend against a measure which 
would make the people the depository of political power in this 
country, as they would against a revolution of the old French 
model. But you have done your duty in introducing to them the 
five or six millions who may at any time set their eyes on the 
portals of the constitution with a demand for admittance which 
could not be resisted ; and 3'ou have given them this warning in 
language with which no one, however fastidious, can quarrel, and 
yet which nobody can fail to understand. But, after all, I some- 
times think that we almost lend ourselves to an imposture in 
arguing on these matters, as though we believed we were appeal- 
ing to a tribunal which could be swayed by appeals to reason and 
the principles of justice." 



Mi. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 623 

Whilst he was in this mood of discouragement, he received 
a letter from Mr. Gladstone, written (Feb. 10) on behalf of the 
Government and by desire of Lord Palmerston, offering him the 
office of Chairman of the Board of Audit. It was proposed to 
reconstitute the Board, and to strengthen and raise the position 
of its head ; the Comptrollership of the Exchequer was to be 
united to the Chair of the Board of Audit ; and the salary was to 
be raised to 2000/. a year. Although the duties of the office, Mr. 
Gladstone said, would require very high qualities for their proper 
discharge, they would not be very laborious. The tender of such 
an office was not to be taken as an adequate acknowledgment of 
his distinguished and long continued public services, but it was 
the highest civil office which the Government had it in their 
power to give. After taking a couple of days to think over the 
proposal, though probably his decision was made at once, Cobden 
declined it : — 

"Midhurst, Feb. 13, 1865. 

"My dear Mr. Gladstone, — 

" I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter written on 
behalf of the Government, offering in the kindest terms to place 
at my option the post of Chairman of the Board of Audit, about 
to be vacated by Mr. Eomilly. Owing to the state of my health, 
I am precluded from taking any office which involves the per- 
formance of stated duties at all seasons of the year, or leaves a 
sense of responsibility for the fulfilment of those duties by others. 
I have for some time been liable to recurring attacks, during cer- 
tain conditions of the atmosphere, of what medical authorities 
call nervous asthma. While giving me no pain, it disqualifies 
me for active exertion during its visitations, and I am certain of 
exemption from it only in warm weather. I cannot live in Lon- 
don during the season of fog and frost. Here there are good and 
sufficient reasons why I should for the rest of my days be exempt 
from the cares of salaried official life. But were my case differ- 
ent, still, while sensible of the kind intentions which prompted 
the offer, it would assuredly not be consulting my welfare to 
place me in the post in question, with my known views respect- 
ing the nature of our finance. Believing, as I do, that while the 
income of the Government is derived in a greater proportion than 
in any other country from the taxation of the humblest classes, 
its expenditure is to the last degree wasteful and indefensible, it 
would be almost a penal appointment to consign me for the re- 
mainder of my life to the task of passively auditing our finance 
accounts. I fear my health would sicken and my days be short- 
ened by the nauseous ordeal. It will be better that I retain my 
seat in Parliament as long as I am able in any tolerable degree to 
perform its duties, where I have at least the opportunity of pro- 



624 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1865. 

testing, however unavailingly, against the Government expendi- 
ture. But I am wandering from the text of your kind letter, for 
which I heartily thank you, especially for the postscript, 1 and I 
remain, 

" Very truly yours, 

"KlCHAKD COBDEN." 

In acknowledging the letter, Mr. Gladstone expressed his satis- 
faction that Cobden so clearly appreciated the spirit in which the 
offer had been made by the Government, and especially by Lord 
Palmerston. He went on to add that he did not think the most 
faithful discharge of the duties of the office would have made the 
incumbent of it in any sense whatever responsible for the ex- 
penditure of the country, or would even have brought it before 
him in any marked manner in the career of ordinary duty. None 
of Cobden's friends have ever doubted the propriety of his de- 
cision, though it is within the range of possibility that if it had 
been otherwise his days might have been prolonged. 

At this time Mr. Bright wrote to him (Feb. 23), saying that 
Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald was to talk on Canadian Fortifications 
some day soon. " I wish," Mr. Bright said, " that you could be 
in the House when he comes on. You understand the details of 
the question better than any other man in the House, and I think 
you could knock over the stupid proposition to spend English 
money in fortifications at Quebec. I shall probably say some- 
thing if you are not there, but I hope the matter may not be 
debated till you are in town." A week later, Cobden received 
the last letter that he was destined to have from his friend. It 
was a note (March 3), saying by what train Mr. Bright would 
come down to Midhurst on the following afternoon. Cobden 
now occasionally ventured out into the air during the middle of 
the day, and he and Mr. Bright took easy walks together on the 
terrace at Dunford or in the lanes. On one occasion, looking in 
the direction of the church, Cobden said, "My boy is buried there, 
and it will not be long before I am there with him." It was, 
indeed, little more than a month. 

Three final letters belong to this date : — 

"Feb. 23. {To Mr. T. B. Potter.) — I have forwarded Lord 

's letter to Mr. Goldwin Smith. I observe that he assigns as 

the main cause for the hostility of the ruling class (for the masses 
we know are on the other side) to the North to the fact that the 
Americans have (previous to the war as well as since) shown a 
disposition to go to war with us. This is the old indictment, and 
I have but one answer to it. The United States maintained pre- 

1 The postscript was to the effect that, if he were disposed to talk the matter 
over, Mr. Gladstone was at his service. 



Mt. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 625 

vious to the outbreak of the Civil "War an army of 17,000 meu 
and a navy of 7,000, and for ten years previous had never com- 
missioned a line-of-battle ship. Yet in her dealings with Eng- 
land and Europe, with their standing armies of half a million of 
men, and their navies of scores of line-of-battle ships, the United 
States carried, we are now told, matters with a high hand ! Was 
there ever a stronger admission of the superiority of moral force 
and of republicanism ? When a Bobadil or a Drawcansir is rep- 
resented on the stage, he is always armed to the teeth. But here 
you have an unarmed nation bullying great military and naval 
powers. Would to Heaven that France, Bussia, Austria, England, 
Italy, and Prussia would follow this fashion of bullying ! . . . . 

" What is running in Lord 's head is the common fallacy 

of confounding the language of certain newspapers and parties in 
America with the acts of the Government. Is it fair to forget 
that there are nearly two millions of persons who were born in 
Ireland living in the United States, and perhaps as many more 
the offspring of Irish parents, all of whom are animated with the 
most intense hatred towards England ? New York city alone at 
the last census had 260,000 Irish, actually more than the popula- 
tion of Dublin in 1851, thus making New York the greatest Irish 
city in the world. These people have their newspapers, their 
orators, and they have votes. Considering how demonstrative 
they are, it is not wonderful that their voices are heard at every 
period of excitement. But what shall be said of the fairness of 
those Englishmen, who, knowing that the misery and depopula- 
tion of Ireland has sprung from centuries of oppression and out- 
rageous injustice on the part of England, follow the Irish to 
America, and, instead of frankly acknowledging that they have 
grounds of resentment towards us, fasten their quarrel on the 
Americans who have given them an asylum ! 

" Shall I confess the thought that troubles me in connection 
with this subject ? I have seen with disgust the altered tone 
with which America has been treated since she was believed to 
have committed suicide, or something like it. In our diplomacy, 
our press, and with our public speakers, all hastened to kick the 
dead lion. Now in a few months everybody will know that the 
North will triumph, and what troubles me is lest I should live to 
see our ruling class — which can understand and respect power 
better than any other class — grovel once more, and more basely 
than before, to the giant of democracy. This would not only 
inspire me with disgust and indignation, but with shame and 
humiliation. I think I see signs that it is coming. The Times is 
less insolent and Lord Palmerston is more civil." 

" March 15. (To Mr. Bright.) — I have read through the whole 
of the debate on Monday. The alteration of tone is very remark- 

40 



626 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1865. 

able. It is clear that the homage which was refused to justice 
and humanity will be freely given to success. No part of your 
speech was to me more acceptable than where -you threw in the 
parenthetical reflection that the sacrifices of the North were not 
to put Bourbons on the throne of France or to keep the Turk in 
Europe. Still, do not let us deceive ourselves. There will be a 
back reckoning. It is all very well to talk of future peace and 
good-will, but the Americans will feel that they have a substantial 
wrong to redress with this country. In international law (if 
there be such a thing) a nation is a unit, and the whole is respon- 
sible to another people for the acts of its individuals. Parties 
will from this moment be looking for political capital in America 
to the resentment everywhere felt against our shipbuilders and 
merchants. There is not an aspirant for the Presidency, even in- 
cluding our dear friend Sumner, who will not be ready to take 
the stump on the ground of ' indemnity to American citizens for 
losses by the Alabama.' I will trust none of their leading poli- 
ticians except Lincoln, whose political life closes with his next 
term. 

"Now the money question is really the smallest part of the 
issue between the two countries arising out of the experience we 
have had of the present state of international maritime law, and 
the interest we have, beyond all other countries, in altering it. 
But where is the statesmanship to deal with the problem, when 
nobody seems to look beyond the exigencies of the next twenty- 
four hours ? I feel confident there can never be a war between 
us and America. The mass of the people here must every day 
fee! that they have a far higher stake in the United States than 
in the country of their birth. 

" I was glad you brought out so clearly the homestead law. 
"When it is fairly driven home to the apprehension of our dull 
landless millions that the people of the United States hold the 
largest and richest unoccupied domain in the world, not for great 
feudal monopolists like the Demidoffs or the Sutherlands, not 
even for the exclusive use of American citizens, but in trust for 
the landless millions aforesaid, to every one of whom is offered a 
farm as large as he can cultivate, and a vote six months after his 
settlement (which is the rule in the West), it will be impossible 
to marshal in hostile array the masses of this country against that 
people. But though the governing classes will not be able to in- 
volve us in war, they will, I think, if they continue to hold their 
present rule in this country, bring on us some great humiliation 
from America, which never could happen if the people as a whole 
controlled the politics of the state." 

"March 20. (To Colonel Cole.) — The most interesting debate 
of the session hitherto has been on Canadian affairs. This is a 



Mi. 60.] CORRESPONDENCE. 627 

subject of increasing interest, and the projected confederation of 
the British North American colonies will bring it into great 
prominence this session. It seems to be generally accepted here 
as a desirable change, though I fail to discover any immediate in- 
terest which the British public have in the matter. There is no 
proposal to relieve us from the expense and risk of pretending to 
defend those colonies from the United States — a task which, by 
the way, everybody admits to be beyond our power. Then I 
cannot see what substantial interest the British people have in 
the connection to compensate them for guaranteeing three or 
four millions of North Americans living in Canada, &c, against 
another community of Americans living in their neighborhood. 
We are told indeed of the 'loyalty' of the Canadians; but this 
is an ironical term to apply to people who neither pay our taxes 
nor obey our laws, nor hold themselves liable to fight our battles, 
who would repudiate our right to the sovereignty over an acre of 
their territory, and who claim the right of imposing their own 
customs duties, even to the exclusion of our manufactures. We 
are two peoples to all intents and purposes, and it is a perilous 
delusion to both parties to attempt to keep up a sham connection 
and dependence which will snap asunder if it should ever be put 
to the strain of stern reality. It is all very well for our Cockney 
newspapers to talk of defending Canada at all hazards. It would 
be just as possible for the United States to sustain Yorkshire in 
a war with England, as for us to enable Canada to contend against 
the United States. It is simply an impossibility. Nor must we 
forget that the only serious danger of a quarrel between those two 
neighbors arises from the connection of Canada with this country. 
In my opinion it is for the interest of both that we should as 
speedily as possible sever the political thread by which we are as 
communities connected, and leave the individuals on both sides 
to cultivate the relations of commerce and friendly intercourse as 
with other nations. I have felt an interest in this confederation 
scheme, because I thought it was a step in the direction of an 
amicable separation. I am afraid from the last telegrams that 
there may be some difficulty, either in your province or in Lower 
Canada, in carrying out the project. Whatever may be the wish 
of the colonies will meet with the concurrence of our Government 
and Parliament. We have recognized their right to control their 
own fate, even to the point of asserting their independence when- 
ever they think fit, and which we know to be only a question of 
time. All this makes our present responsible position towards 
them truly one-sided and ridiculous. There seems to be some- 
thing like a dead-lock in the political machinery of the Canadas, 
which has driven their leading statesmen into the measure of 
confederation. I suspect that there has been some demoralization 



628 LIFE OF COBDEN. [1865. 

and corruption in that quarter, and that it is in part an effort to 
purify the political system by letting in new blood. There is also, 
I think, an inherent weakness in the parody of our old English 
constitution, which is performed on the miniature scenes of the 
colonial capitals, with their speeches from the throne, votes of 
confidence, appeals to the country, changes of ministry, &c, and 
all about such trumpery issues that the game at last becomes 
ridiculous in the eyes of both spectators and actors." 

A few days after Mr. Bright had left him, Cobden found him- 
self unable to resist the desire to take a part in the discussion on 
the Canadian Fortifications, and on the 21st of March, in bitter 
weather, he travelled up to London, accompanied by Mrs. Cobden 
and his second daughter. Instead of going as usual to the house 
of Mr. Paulton or some other friend, he had taken lodgings in Suf- 
folk Street ; it was close to the Athenaeum, and as near as he could 
get to the House of Commons. On his arrival at his journey's 
end, after writing a few letters, according to his indefatigable cus- 
tom, he was immediately prostrated by an attack of asthma. He 
lay through the bleak days watching the smoke blown from the 
chimneys of the houses opposite, and vainly hoping that the wind 
would change its quarter from the merciless east. At the end of 
a week he seemed convalescent, and was allowed to see one or two 
friends. The apparent recovery only lasted a few hours, and was 
followed by a sharper attack than before. For a day or two his 
wife and daughter watched with painful alternations of hope and 
fear. On the 1st of April the asthma Became congestive, and 
bronchitis supervened. It was now evident that he would not re- 
cover. He was able to make his will, and occasionally to say a 
few words to those who were watching by his bedside. 

Mr. Bright called in the evening, but was not allowed to see 
him. Early the next morning (Sunday, April 2) he called again ; 
and as all chance of a rally had now vanished, he took his place 
by the side of the dying man. One other friend was in the room, 
Mr. George Moffatt, whose intimacy with Cobden had been long 
and sincere. They saw that his end was very close. As the bells 
of St. Martin's Church were ringing for the morning service, the 
miscs of death began to settle heavily on his brow, and his ardent, 
courageous, and brotherly spirit soon passed tranquilly away. 
Many tears were shed in homes where Cobden's name was revered 
and loved when the tidings that he was dead reached them. 

At the time of his death he was within two months of the com- 
pletion of his sixty-first year. One afternoon in the summer of 
1856, he and a friend took it into their heads, as there was nothing 
of importance going on in the House, to stroll into the Abbey. 
His friend had never been inside before, as he confessed that he 
had never been inside St. Paul's Cathedral, though he had passed 



Mr. 60.] LAST DAYS AND DEATH. 629 

it every day of his life for fifteen years. They strolled about among 
the monuments for a couple of hours, and the natural remark fell 
from his companion that perhaps one day the name of Cobden too 
would figure among the heroes. " I hope not," said Cobden, " I 
hope not. My spirit could not rest in peace among these men of 
war. No, no, cathedrals are not meant to contain the remains of 
such men as Bright and me." He was buried by the side of his 
son in the little churchyard at Lavington, on the slope of the 
hill among the pine woods. A large concourse gathered round his 
grave, some of them illustrious, others of them obscure, some his 
companions in past victories, others his fellow- workers in causes 
that still seemed forlorn ; but all bound together for the moment in 
attachment to the memory of a frank and cordial friend, and a 
clear-sighted and faithful citizen. 

" Before we left the house," Mr. Bright has told us, " standing 
by me and leaning on the coffin, was his sorrowing daughter, one 
whose attachment to her father seems to have been a passion 
scarcely equalled among daughters. She said, ' My father used to 
like me very much to read to him the Sermon on the Mount.' 
His own life was to a large extent — I speak it with reverence 
and with hesitation — a sermon based upon that best, that greatest 
of all sermons. His was a life of perpetual self-sacrifice." 

On the day after Cobden's death, when the House of Commons 
met, the Prime Minister commemorated the loss which they had 
all sustained in a few kindly sentences. It was reserved for Mr. 
Disraeli to strike a deeper note. " There is this consolation," he 
said, "remaining to us when we remember our unequalled and 
irreparable losses, that these great men are not altogether lost to 
us, that their words will be often quoted in this House, that their 
examples will often be referred to and appealed to, and that even 
their expressions may form a part of our discussions. There are, 
indeed, I may say, some members of Parliament, who, though they 
may not be present, are still members of this House, are inde- 
pendent of dissolutions, of the caprices of constituencies, and even 
of the course of time. I think that Mr. Cobden was one of these 
men." 

While the House was still under an impression from these 
words which was almost religious, Mr. Bright, yielding to a marked 
and silent expectation, rose and tried to say how every expression 
of sympathy that he had heard had been most grateful to his heart. 
" But the time," he went on in broken accents, " which has elapsed 
since in my presence the manliest and gentlest spirit that ever 
quitted or tenanted a human form took its flight is so short, that I 
dare not even attempt to give utterance to the feelings by which 
I am oppressed. I shall leave to some calmer moment when I 



630 LIFE OF COBDEN. 

may have an opportunity of speaking before some portion of my 
countrymen the lesson which I think may be learned from the life 
and character of my friend. I have only to say that, after twenty 
years of most intimate and almost brotherly friendship, I little 
knew how much I loved him until I had lost him." As Homer 
says of Nestor and Ulysses, so of these two it may be said that 
they never spoke diversely either in the assembly or in the coun- 
cil, but were always of one mind, and together advised the English 
with understanding and with counsel how all might be for the best. 



CHAPTEE XXXVIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

A chakacter like that of Cobden calls for no elaborate attempt 
at analysis. In motive and purpose he was the most candid and 
direct of mankind. Though he was amply endowed with that 
practical wisdom which Aristotle describes as the first quality of 
the man who meddles with government, all his aims, his sympa- 
thies, his maxims, were as open and transparent as the day. No- 
body could be more free from the spirit of Machiavellian calcula- 
tion. He had in a full measure the gift of tact, but it came from 
innate considerateness and good feeling, and not either from social 
art or from hidden subtlety of nature. Of Cobden's qualities as a 
public man enough has been said already. 1 Some of his private 
traits may well be recorded beside them. 

It is easy to know how a nature so open and expansive would 
win the attachment of friends. In his own house, where public 
men do not always seek the popularity that is the very breath of 
their nostrils abroad, he was tender, solicitous, forbearing, never 
exacting. Most of his preparation for speeches and pamphlets 
was done amid the bustle of a young household, and he preferred 
to work amid the sociable play of his little children. His thor- 
oughly pleasant and genial temper made him. treat everybody who 
approached him as a friend. Few men have attracted friends of 
such widely different type. The hard-headed man of business 
and the fastidious man of letters were equally touched by the in- 
terest of his conversation and the charm of his character. There 
must have been something remarkable about one who won the 
admiration of Prosper Merimee, and the cordial friendship of Mr. 
Goldwin Smith, and the devoted service of strenuous practical 
1 See above, Chapter IX. 



CONCLUSION. 631 

men like Mr. Slagg and Mr. Thomasson. His exceeding amiabil- 
ity was not insipid. He was never bitter, but he knew how to 
hit hard, and if a friend did wrong and public mischief came of it, 
Cobden did not shrink from the duty of dealing faithfully with 
him. We have seen with what vigor he denounced the doings of 
Sir John Bowring in China, and the supposed backslidings of Sir 
William Molesworth in the Cabinet'. 1 

He usually extended his good-nature even to the busy-bodies 
who pester public men with profitless correspondence. When 
strangers who wrote to him committed the absurd offence of 
subscribing to their letters a hieroglyphic that no one could read, 
he only said to them in reply that it was a pity that some system 
of rewards and punishments could not be devised to make people 
at least sign their own names plainly. It was very seldom that 
he allowed himself to be provoked into dealing a blow to the im- 
pertinence which used to protest against his un-English conduct, 
his want of patriotism, and the other cries of that stupid party 
which is not by any means exclusively composed of Tories. Old 
soldiers in the army of the League especially were apt to suppose 
that this accident gave them a right to lecture him. One of them, 
an entire stranger to Cobden, wrote a vehement protest against 
his un-English conduct in siding with the North in the American 
war, and justified his remonstrance by the fact that he had once 
belonged to the Anti-Corn-Law League. " Permit me to say," said 
Cobden, ." that you must have been out of place in our ranks, for 
no one can be a consistent enemy of monopoly, who does not tol- 
erate an honest difference of opinion on every question. Your 
note is a laughable assumption of superiority and authority, where 
I can recognize neither." 2 

It was hie fortune to be engaged in incessant conflict all 
through his life, and we have had occasion to mark the dauntless 
buoyancy with which he sprung time after time down to the very 
end into the breach, and waged his active battle almost single- 
handed against Lord Palmerston and his immovable host. What 
makes it the more admirable is that Cobden was not by nature in- 
clined to this ceaseless attitude of oppugnancy. There is a story 
that, going down to the House on one of these occasions, he said 
to his companion, " I hate having to beard in this way hundreds 
of well-meaning wrong-headed people, and to face the look of 
rage with which they regard me. I had a thousand times rather 
not have to do it, but it must be done." Even in his sharpest 

1 See above, p. 417. A sharper dispute took place between Cobden and Sir 
William Molesworth on the 3d of August, 1855. The latter had gone out of his 
way to use some hard words about the peace party. Cobden showed, with a good 
deal of pungency, that until he went into the Cabinet Sir William Molesworth 
avowedly shared his opinions to the letter. — Hansard, cxxxix. 
2 November 12, 1864. 



632 LIFE OF COBDEN. 

speeches we are conscious of a sentiment of this kind. He was 
unsparing in the trenchancy of his argument, but he never sought 
to hurt individuals, not even Lord Palmerston. " I believe he is 
perfectly sincere," Cobden said, " for the longer I live, the more I 
believe in men's sincerity." There could be no better sign of a 
pure and generous character, than that so honorable a conviction 
as this .should have been the lesson of his experience. 

Cobden's conversation, like his public addresses, was simple, 
reasonable, devoid of striking figures of speech, but bright, eager, 
and expansive ; and, as Merimee said, 1 it was the outcome of an 
extremely interesting mind, and unlike English conversation in 
being quite free from commonplaces. On religious questions he 
was for the most part silent. When he was in the country, he 
went to church like other people. All his personal habits were 
in the highest degree simple and frugal. He was indifferent to 
the pleasures of the table, he did not care to acquire fine things 
of any kind, and he had none of the passion of the collector. Pol- 
itics were the one commanding interest of his life. 

But it is well once more to note that what Cobden talked about 
and cared for was real politics, not the game of party. Politics in 
his sense meant the large workings of policy, not the manoeuvres 
of members of Parliament. When the newspaper was unfolded in 
the morning, that furnished him and his friends or his guests with 
topics for the clay. Events all over the world were deliberately 
discussed in relation to wide and definite general principles ; their 
bearings were worked out in the light of what Cobden conceived to 
be the great economical and social movements of the world. This 
is what makes a real school in politics. It was in the same spirit 
that Cobden read books and talked with bookish men. His point 
of view was always actual, not in the sense of the vulgar practical 
man, but social and political. When he read a book, he read it 
as all reading should be done, with a view to life and practice, and 
not in the way of refined self-indulgence. The Life of Eliot made 
him think of the state of the franchise in those old times, and 
Motley's History of the Netherlands, which interested him greatly, 
suggested to him that Queen Elizabeth carried her aversion to 
European crusading in the Palmerstonian sense almost too far. 2 

1 See above, p. 133. 

2 << Why, when I read Motley's History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic — an 
admirable book which everybody should read, — when I read the history of the 
Netherlands, and when I see how that struggling community, with their whole 
country desolated by Spanish troops, and every town lighted up daily with the fires 
of persecution, — when I see the accounts of what passed when the envoys came to 
Queen Elizabeth and asked for aid, how she is huckstering for money while they are 
begging for help to their religion, — I declare that, with all my principles of non- 
intervention, I am almost ashamed of old Queen Bess. And then there were Bur- 
leigh, Walsingham, and the rest, who were, if possible, harder and more difficult to 
deal with than their mistress. Why, they carried out in its unvarnished selfishness 
a national British policy ; they had no other idea of a policy but a national British 



CONCLUSION. 633 

To the Ilissus we may confess that Cobden was a little unjust, but 
the point of his good-humored sarcasm has been much misrepre- 
sented. He was, he said in his last speech, a great advocate of 
culture of every kind. What he sought was that young men 
should be led to add to classical learning a great knowledge of 
modern affairs, and the habits of serious political thought about 
their own time. 1 

His own industry in acquiring the knowledge that was neces- 
sary for his purpose was enormous. His pamphlets show his ap- 
petite for blue-books, and as with other sensible men it was an 
appetite which led him not merely to swallow, but to digest and 
assimilate. He was a constant student of Hansard, and for one 
who seeks for purposes of action or controversy to make himself 
well versed in the political transactions of the present century, 
there is no book so well worth the labor of ransacking. Cobden 
was never afraid of labor that he thought would be useful ; he 
cheerfully undertook even the drudgery of translation, and that 
too in a case where he did not in his heart expect to make any 
important mark on opinion. 2 

People have often wondered how it was that a man who showed 
so remarkable a capacity for understanding public business, should 
have made so little of a success of his own affairs. The same ques- 

policy, and they carried it out with a degree of selfishness amounting to downright 
avarice. 

"He next quotes Chatham. Do you suppose that Chatham was running about 
the world protecting and looking after other people's affairs ? Why, he went abroad 

in the spirit of a commercial traveller more than any Minister we ever had 

At that time, Lord Chatham thought, that by making war upon France and seizing 
the Canadas, he was bringing custom to the English merchants and manufacturers ; 
and he publicly declared that he made those conquests for the very purpose of giving 
a monopoly of those conquered markets to Englishmen at home ; and he said he 

would not allow the colonists to manufacture a horseshoe for themselves 

Now, if I take Chatham's great son, if I take the second Pitt, when he entered 
upon wars he immediately began the conquest of colonies. When he entered 
upon war with France in 1793, and for three or four years afterwards, our navy was 
employed in little else than seizing colonies, the islands of the West Indies, &c, 
whether they belonged to France, Holland, or Denmai'k, or other nations, and he 
believed by that means he could make war profitable." — Speeches, ii. 350, 351. 

1 The passage was prompted by a little slip in a leading article in the Times, 
which had made one of the greatest of American rivers run up hill a great number 
of miles into another river, and then these two united (the waters of which are 
never blended at all) were made to flow into a third river, into which, as it happens, 
neither of them pours a drop. How preposterous, said Cobden, that young gentle- 
men who know all about the geography of ancient Greece, should be unable, if 
asked to point out Chicago on the map, to go within a thousand miles of it. 
"When I. was at Athens," he said, " I sallied out one summer morning to see the 
far-famed river, the Ilissus, and after walking for some hundred yards up what ap- 
peared to be the bed of a winter torrent, I came up to a number of Athenian laun- 
dresses, and I found they had dammed up this far-famed classic river, and that they 
were using every drop of water for their linen and such sanitary purposes. I say, 
why should not the young gentlemen who are taught all about the geography of the 
Ilissus know something about the geography of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the 
Missouri ? " — Speeches, ii. 364. 

2 In 1858 he translated M. Chevalier's pamphlet on Gold. 



634 LIFE OF COBDEN. 

tion might be asked of Burke and of Pitt, both of them economists 
and financiers of the first order, yet both of whom allowed their 
private affairs to fall into embarrassment and ruin. One obvious 
answer is that their minds were too much absorbed in public in- 
terests to have any room left for that close attention to private 
interests which must always be required to raise a poor man into 
prosperity. Cobden, it is true, deliberately attempted material 
success, and did not attempt it with prudence. The failure was 
in fact due to the very qualities which made him successful in 
larger affairs. His penetration shows to a man of this kind ways 
in which money may be made, and his energy naturally incites 
him to try to make it. Cobden was penetrating, energetic, aud 
sanguine. " The records of unfortunate commerce," as Mr. Bage- 
hot said, " abound in instances of men who have been unsuccess- 
ful, because they had great mind, great energy, and great hope, 
but had not money in proportion." 2 

One obvious criticism on Cobden's work, and it has often been 
made, is that he was expecting the arrival of a great social reform 
from the mere increase and more equal distribution of material 
wealth. He ought to have known, they say, that what our soci- 
ety needs is the diffusion of intellectual light and the fire of a 
higher morality. It is even said by some that Free Trade has 
done harm rather than good, because it has flooded the country 
with wealth which men have never been properly taught how to 
use. In other words, material progress has been out of all pro- 
portion to moral progress. 

Now nobody had better reason to know this than Cobden. The 
perpetual chagrin of his life was the obstinate refusal of those on 
whom he had helped to shower wealth and plenty to hear what 
he had to say on the social ideals to which their wealth should 
lead. At last he was obliged to say to himself, as he wrote to a 
friend : " Nations have not yet learnt to bear prosperity, liberty, 
and peace. They will learn it in a higher state of civilization. 
We think we are the models for posterity, when we are little bet- 
ter than beacons to help it to avoid the rocks and quicksands." 

" When I come here," he wrote to Mr. Hargreaves from Dun- 
ford, " to ramble alone in the fields and to think, I am impressed 
with the aspect of our political and social relations. We have the 
spirit of feudalism rife and rampant in the midst of the antagonis- 
tic development of the age of Watt, Arkwright, and Stephenson ! 
Nay, feudalism is every day more and more in the ascendant in 
political and social life. So great is its power and prestige that 
it draws to it the support and homage of even those who are the 
natural leaders of the newer and better civilization. Manufac- 

1 Bagehot's Literary Studies, vol. i. p. 373, — a passage as applicable to Cobden 
as to Mr. Wilson, about whom it is written. 



CONCLUSION. 635 

turers and merchants as a rule seem only to desire riches that they 
may be enabled to prostrate themselves at the feet of feudalism. 
How is this to end ? And whither are we tending in both our 
domestic and foreign relations ? Can we hope to avoid collisions 
at home or wars abroad whilst all the tendencies are to throw 
power and influence into the wrong scale ? " 1 

He had begun life with the idea that the great manufacturers 
and merchants of England should aspire to that high directing 
position which had raised the Medici, the Fuggers, and the De 
Witts to a level with the sovereign princes of the earth. 2 At the 
end he still thought that no other class possessed wealth and in- 
fluence enough to counteract the feudal class. 3 Through all his 
public course Cobden did his best to moralize this great class; to 
raise its self-respect and its consciousness of its own dignity and 
power. Like every one else, he could only work within his own 
limits. It is too soon yet to say how our feudal society will ulti- 
mately be recast. So far plutocracy shows a very slight gain upon 
aristocracy, of which it remains, as Cobden so constantly deplored, 
an imitation, and a very bad imitation. The political exclusive- 
ness of the oligarchy has been thoroughly broken down since Cob- 
den's day. It seems, however, as if the preponderance of power 
were inevitably destined not for the middle class, as he believed, 
but for the workmen. 

For this future regime Cobden's work was the best preparation. 
He conceived a certain measure of material prosperity, generally 
diffused, to be an indispensable instrument of social well-being. 
For England, as with admirable foresight he laid down in his first 
pamphlet, in 1835, the cardinal fact is the existence of the United 
States — its industrial competition and its democratic example. 
This has transformed the conditions of policy. This is what warns 
English statesmen to set their house in order. For a country in 
our position, to keep the standard of living at its right level, free 
access to the means of subsistence and the material of industry 
was the first essential. Thrift in government and wise adminis- 
tration of private capital have become equally momentous in 
presence of the rising world around us. To abstain from inter- 
vention in the affairs of other nations is not only recommended 
by economic prudence, but is the only condition on which proper 
attention can be paid to the moral and social necessities at home. 
Let us not, then, tax Cobden with failing to do the work of the 
social moralist. It is his policy which gives to the social reformer 
a foothold. He accepted the task which, from the special require- 
ments of the time, it fell to him to do, and it is both unjust and 
ungrateful to call him narrow for not performing the tasks of others 
as well as his own. 

1 To Mr. JTargreaves, April 10, 1863. 3 See above, pp. 576, 577. 

2 See above, p. 91 . 



636 LIFE OF COBDEN. 

It was his view of policy as a whole, connected with the move- 
ment of wealth and industry all over the world, that distinguished 
Cobden and his allies from the Philosophic Radicals, who had 
been expected to form so great and powerful a school in the re- 
formed Parliament. 1 Hume had anticipated him in attacking 
expenditure, and Mr. Roebuck in preaching self-government in 
the colonies. It was not until Retrenchment and Colonial Policy 
were placed in their true relation to the new and vast expansion 
of commerce and the growth of population, that any considerable 
number of people accepted them. The Radical party only became 
effective when it had connected its principles with economic facts. 
The different points of view of the Manchester School and of the 
Philosophic Radicals was illustrated in Mr. Mill's opposition to 
the alterations which Cobden had advocated in international mari- 
time law. Mr. Mill argued that the best way of stopping wars is 
to make them as onerous as possible to the citizens of the country 
concerned, and therefore that to protect the goods of the mer- 
chants of a belligerent country is to give them one motive the 
less for hindering their Government from making war. With all 
reverence for the ever admirable author of this argument, it must 
be pronounced to be abstract and unreal, when compared with 
Cobden's. You are not likely to prevent the practice of war, he 
contended, but what you can do is to make it less destructive to 
the interests and the security of great populations. An argument 
of this kind rests on a more solid basis, and suggests a wider com- 
prehension of actual facts. In the same way he translated the 
revolutionary watchword of the Fraternity of Peoples into the 
language of common sense and practice, and the international 
sentiment as interpreted by him became an instrument for pre- 
serving as well as improving European order. He was justified 
in regarding his principles as the true Conservatism of modern 
societies. 

Great economic and social forces flow with a tidal sweep over 
communities that are only half-conscious of that which is befall- 
ing them. Wise statesmen are those who foresee what time is 
thus bringing, and endeavor to shape institutions and to mould 
men's thought and purpose in accordance with the change that is 
silently surrounding them. To this type Cobden by his character 
and his influence belonged. Hence, amid the coarse strife and 
blind passion of the casual factions of the day, his name will stand 
conspicuously out as a good servant of the Commonwealth, and 
be long held in grateful memory. 

1 See Mr. Mill's Autobiography, pp. 194-196. 



APPENDIX. 



Note A. (See p. 78.) 
Cobden to W. C. Hunt on the Hours of Labor. 

Falmouth, ^ct. 21, 1836. 
" . . . . When upon the point of embarking on board the Liv- 
erpool steamer for Lisbon, a thought has occurred to me relative 
to the address which I left with you for the Stockport electors, 
and which induces me to trouble you with this letter. I have 
altogether omitted to advert to the Ten Hours Bill; and as it is a 
question that interests deeply the non-electors, whose influence, 
I am aware, is. very considerable in your borough, I might be con- 
sidered to have wilfully and designedly suppressed all allusion 
to the subject, if I did not explain my opinions unreservedly 
upon it. As respects the right and justice by which young per- 
sons ought to be protected from excessive labor, my mind has ever 
been decided, and I will not argue the matter for a moment with 
political economy ; it is a question for the medical and not the 

economical profession ; I will appeal to or Astley Cooper, 

and not to MacCulloch or Martineau. ISTor does it require the 
aid of science to inform us that the tender germ of childhood is 
unfitted for that period of labor which even persons of mature 
age shrink from as excessive. In my opinion, and I hope to see 
the day when such a feeling is universal, no child ought to be put 
to work in a cotton mill at all so early as the age of thirteen years; 
and after that the hours should be moderate, and the labor light, 
until such time as the human frame is rendered by nature capable 
of enduring the fatigues of adult labor. With such feelings as 
these strongly pervading my mind, I need not perhaps add that, 
had I been in the House of Commons during the last session of 
Parliament, I should have opposed with all my might Mr. Poulett 
Thomson's measure for postponing the operation of the clause for 
restricting the hours of infant labor. I am aware that many of 
the advocates of the cause of the factory children are in favor 



638 APPENDIX. 

of a Ten Hours Bill for restricting the working of the engines, 
which in fact would be to limit the use of steam in all cotton 
establishments (for young persons are, I believe, at present em- 
ployed in every branch of our staple manufacture, more or less) 
to ten hours a day. It has always, however, appeared to me that 
those who are in favor of this policy lose sight of the very impor- 
tant consequences which are involved in the principle. Have 
they considered that it would be the first example of a legislature 
of a free country interfering with the freedom of adult labor ? 
Have they reflected that, if we surrender into the hands of Gov- 
ernment the power to make laws to fix the hours of labor at all, 
it has as good a right, upon the same principle, to make twenty 
hours the standard as ten ? Have they taken into account that, 
if the spinners and weavers are to be protected by Act of Parlia- 
ment, then the thousand other mechanical and laborious trades 
must in justice have their claims attended to by the same tri- 
bunal ? I believe it is now nearly three hundred years ago since 
laws were last enforced which regulated or interfered with the 
labor of the working classes. They were the relics of the feudal 
ages, and to escape from the operation of such a species of legisla- 
tion was considered as a transition from a state of slavery to that 
of freedom. Now it appears to me, however unconscious the ad- 
vocates of such a policy may be of such consequences, that if we 
admit the right of the Government to settle the hours of labor, 
we are in principle going back again to that point from which our 
ancestors escaped three centuries ago. Let not the people — I 
mean the masses — think lightly of those great principles upon 
which their strength wholly rests. The privileged and usurping 
few may advocate expediency in lieu of principles, but depend 
upon it we, reformers, must cling to first principles, and be pre- 
pared to carry them out, fearless of consequences. Am I told that 
the industrious classes in Lancashire are incapable of protecting 
themselves from oppression unless by the shield of the legislature ? 
I am loath to believe it. Nay, as I am opposed to the plan of 
legislating upon such a subject, I am bound to suggest another 
remedy. / would, then, advise the working classes to make them- 
selves free of the labor market of the world, and this they can do by 
accumulating twenty pounds each, which will give them the com- 
mand of the only market in which labor is at a higher rate than 
in England — I mean that of the United States. If every work- 
ingman would save this sum, he might be as independant of his 
employer as the latter, with his great capital, is of his workmen. 
Were this universal, we should hear no more of the tyranny of 
the employers. If I am told that my scheme is chimerical be- 
cause the working classes cannot depend upon each other, I answer 
that I have better hopes of them, and I look forward to many 



APPENDIX. 639 

other improvements of a similar kind. All that is required, in 
my opinion, is that the operatives understand their own interests, 
and be not put upon a false scent ; let them trust only to them- 
selves, and not depend upon the legislature, which will never avail 
them. I yield to no man in the world (be he ever so stout 
an advocate of the Ten Hours Bill) in a hearty good-will towards 
the great body of the working classes ; but my sympathy is not of 
that morbid kind which would lead me to despond over their 
future prospects. Nor do I partake of that spurious humanity, 
which would indulge in an unreasoning kind of philanthropy at 
the expense of the independence of the great bulk of the commu- 
nity. Mine is that masculine species of charity which would lead 
me to inculcate in the minds of the laboring classes the love of 
independence, the privilege of self-respect, the disdain of being 
patronized or petted, the desire to accumulate, and the ambition 
to rise. I know it has been found easier to please the people by 
holding out flattering and delusive prospects of cheap benefits to 
be derived from Parliament, rather than by urging them to a 
course of self-reliance ; but while I will not be the sycophant of 
the great, I cannot become the parasite of the poor; and I have 
sufficient confidence in the growing intelligence of the working 
classes to be induced to believe that they will now be found to 
contain a great proportion of minds, sufficiently enlightened by 
experience to concur with me in opinion that it is to themselves 
alone individually, that they, as well as every other great section 
of the community, must trust for working out their own regen- 
eration and happiness. Again I say to them, 'Look not to Parlia- 
ment, look only to yourselves.' 

" It would be easy for me to state reasons of a different descrip- 
tion why the legislature ought not to be suffered to interfere with 
the freedom of the labor of the people. How very obvious, how- 
ever, must it be that any law restricting the hours of labor would 
be inoperative so soon as it became the interest of masters and 
workmen to violate it ! Where, then, would be the utility or 
wisdom of an enactment which owed its power entirely to the free 
will of the parties whom it professed to coerce ? Surely they 
might act as -effectually without the necessity of infringing and 
merely bringing into disrepute the law of the land ! But it is 
impossible to pursue the question to the extent of its merits within 
the limits of a sheet of letter-paper. If I am told by the advocates 
of a Ten Hours Bill that the plan of putting a restriction upon 
the moving power is the only way of saving the infants from 
destruction, to what a sad point does this argument conduct us ! 
It is, in fact, an avowal that the parents cannot be trusted to obey 
a law which forbids them to sacrifice their offspring. Against 
this lamentable aspersion upon the natural affection of the working 



640 APPENDIX. 

classes I enter my solemn protest. I believe, on the contrary, 
that public opinion amongst them is sufficiently patent to prevent 
an unnatural connivance of the kind on the part of any consid- 
erable number of parents ; and I am convinced that- the morality 
of the people is rapidly advancing to that elevated standard which 
will very soon preclude the apprehension that any individual of 
this body will be found sufficiently depraved to be suspected of 
the guilt of infanticide." 



46- 79 



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